The Demon's Advocate
by Rose Madder
Summary: Someone from Cole's past shows up at the manor asking for his help. Can one be evil and innocent at the same time? Meanwhile, Piper and Leo learn what happens when a witch gets pregnant with a Whitelighter's baby. Sequel to Redemption. COMPLETE
1. An Unexpected Visitor

Note #1: This is a sequel to "Redemption", which means it'll be better understood by those who have read the previous story. It sort of takes place in the fifth season, after the whole mess with the Source has been solved. Wanna know how? That's why I told you to read "Redemption" first.

Note #2: I don't know if Phoebe will keep the power to throw fire balls in the show. In my series, I chose to let her keep it, since she had this power on a past life.

Credits: I don't own Piper, Phoebe, Paige, Cole or Leo, but I do own Ben and Sarsour. And the trolls. And the elves. See? Lots of people.

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Sunday afternoon

Piper is sitting on the edge of her bed, humming a Carpenters tune as she folds the laundry. Unlike her sisters, she doesn't find this task unpleasant; she actually enjoys it: it keeps her hands busy and her mind free to wander around. And she definitely has had a lot to think about lately. Her own pregnancy, for a start: seven months after her nephew's birth, Piper is two months pregnant.

Piper smiles softly as she thinks of Ben: despite of the series of stressing events that marked Phoebe's pregnancy, he's the sweetest, most peaceful baby ever. His good temper and easy laugh can cheer his family up at the end of any rough evil fighting day. Also, after having had a baby in the house for seven months, Piper feels much more confident about their hability to protect a little child. Cole, who used to resent being kept out of a battle, doesn't have to be told twice to pick his son up and leave the room when trouble starts. He and Leo actually seem to have developed a pretty good wordless communication when it comes to determine which one is closer to Ben: there are times when Leo takes him in his arms, orbs to where Cole is and gives him the baby with no need for words and, before the demon/warlock/darklighter/choose your beast knows what's going on, father and son are out of the room. If they can just adapt the routine to include soon-to-be-born Melinda, everything's gonna be just fine, she thinks as she folds the last piece of laundry.

It's funny, Piper thinks as she stands up and starts putting the clothes in the appropriate drawers, that Phoebe ended up being the first one to have a baby. After all, when they traveled to the future, Piper was the only one who had got married and had a little girl of her own. Then again, that's exactly why they traveled to that future: to learn how to avoid it, to prevent Phoebe from killing a man and being convicted to death. While putting Leo's blue shirt on top of the ones already inside the drawer, Piper bites her lower lip with a pensive expression, suddenly wondering if it was the changes that they made to prevent Phoebe's death that brought Cole into their lives.

"Well," she thinks, closing Leo's drawer and proceeding to hers, "we can't say it wasn't a good deal. Sure he almost caused her to lose her immortal soul but, what the heck, he was also willing to let himself be vanquished in order to save that same soul."

She sighs, straightening herself and walking back to her bed.

He's doing his best, she thinks as she picks up the basket and walks out of the room. And you can't blame a man for doing his best, can you? Cole never talks about what he found on the other side -- at least, not with her -- but it must have caused quite an impression on him, 'cause the man has changed. He still has that temper, oh yes, and quite a sharp tongue, nothing could change that, either. But she's noticed how he sometimes bites his lips and leaves the room without a word, instead of making a caustic remark. He still vehemently defends his point of view, but he doesn't interrupt others as they're expressing theirs, nor does he make derisive remarks about them -- well, at least almost never. And, most important, the man is finally getting the idea about the whole team work thing. His experience with the Source seems to have taught him that he's not able to solve every problem by his own.

As Piper walks down the corridor, she hears Cole's voice coming from the room he shares with Phoebe. She stops short, frowning. Phoebe went to see an herbalist across town in order to get some ingredients they're out of, Paige is at a friend's house, and Leo was summoned by the Elders ten minutes ago. Hating herself for being so distrustful, Piper silently approaches the ajar bedroom's door and peers inside.

What she sees makes her bite her tongue to avoid laughing. Ben is lying on his parents' bed looking at his father with those big blue eyes as he's lying beside him, resting on his elbow and gesturing with his free hand as he speaks. Ben's solemn expression could make someone think he is following every word of the speech addressed to him, except that he always copies his father's expression. He smiles when Cole smiles, gets serious when he gets serious, laughs when he laughs, even frowns when he frowns.

"So, you see," Cole is now saying, "there are good witches and bad witches. Your mother and aunts are good witches: they protect the innocents, and do good and everything."

"Humpft!" goes Ben.

"Yes, even your Aunt Piper. I know she can be quite a scary lady sometimes, but she's a good witch. And bad witches, they're called warlocks and they are very, very mean. You should always -- always! -- stay away from them."

"Brrrr!"

"Right. One thing that should help you identify a warlock is the fact that they blink. They magically disappear from one place and appear in another, like this." -- he snaps his fingers.

"Pft!"

"In fact," says Cole, frowning slightly as the thought occurs to him, "almost every creature that can magically disappear from one place and appear in another is evil. Warlocks blink, demons shimmer, darklighters orb... Hum!" -- he absently reaches out and fumbles with the little foot dressed in a white cotton sock -- "You know, I guess the only good guys who can do that are Whitelighters. You know what a Whitelighter is, right? Your Uncle Leo is a Whitelighter. And he's okay, but I don't know any other Whitelighters, so I can't actually guarantee that all of them are good, no matter what they say about all Whitelighters being good and everything. I mean, if a demon can go good, why can't a Whitelighter go bad?"

"Gooooh!"

"You know what?" Cole points his finger to his son, who quickly reachs out to grab it. "Anyone who can magically transport themselves from one place to another, and it's not your Uncle Leo or your Aunt Paige, you stay away from them. Just in case."

"Prrr!"

"Good. Now, where was I?"

"Warlocks can blink," says Piper, showing herself, her face red from the effort to hold back the laughter.

"Hey!" -- Cole jolts, blushing, as she leans against the door frame and laughs so hard that it brings tears to her eyes -- "That's not polite, you know, prying into other people's private conversation."

"God, Cole," she says, wiping the tears from her eyes, "don't you think he's a little too young to have this talk?"

"Better safe than sorry," he says, averting her eyes as he reaches out for the sock that Ben has already kicked away and starts dressing the chubby little foot in it again. "Attacks from evil are a part of our everyday routine."

"Cole, he's seven months. Do you actually expect him to understand what you're saying?"

"Phoebe says he does," he says, stubbornly, "she says that it all gets into his subcouncious, and it'll help him make better decisions in the future."

"The two of you should really stop reading those books," says Piper, rolling her eyes, "otherwise I won't let you get anywhere near Melinda."

"That's different."

"Excuse me?" she says. "Are you implying that my child's welfare is not as important as yours?"

"No," he says, with a hint of annoyance, "I'm saying that Leo doesn't have half as many enemies as I do, and that it's very unlikely that someone comes to this house looking specifically for Melinda. Ben, on the other hand..."

He picks the baby up and puts him sitting on his knees, leaning against his chest, and Piper can't help but notice that Ben's smile has been replaced by an upset face identical to his father's.

"You think that they could come after Ben?" she asks, disturbed, because the idea had never ocurred to her.

"Well," he says, shruging, "I did make a lot of enemies during my short lived reign in the Underworld. And... well, so **_we_** know he's not evil, but do **_they_** know?" -- he points his chin down, obviously not referring to people on the first floor -- "What if someone wants to make sure he'll never demand the throne? Or decides he would make a good figurehead, a Source that could be represented -- and manipulated -- by a tutor?"

"Wow," she says, sitting on the edge of the bed. "You really have given the idea some thought, huh?"

"Well, that's one aspect of parenthood no one tells you about," he says, with a humorless smile, "you become much more aware of how dangerous life is."

"You know," she says gently, "so far you have made a pretty good job keeping him safe. Besides," she adds, smiling, "you really should drop this long face: you must have noticed by now that your son won't smile unless you do."

Cole looks down at the baby, who's now watching him with the grave expression that only a seven-month-old could show. He chuckles, and Ben immediately giggles in response.

"You," he says with a smile, poking Ben's belly and making him squirm and laugh, "are a piece of work, young man."

With a quick glance to his watch, he adds:

"Mommy said you should eat at this time. So, what do you say? Are you hungry?" -- Ben gives him a toothless smile -- "I'll take that as a yes."

As they both stand up, Piper takes the basket and says:

"I'll be in the living room if you need any help."

"Why would I?" says Cole, leaving the room with his son in his arms. "I have done this before."

"Yes," says Piper, following him, "under Phoebe's supervision."

"Oh, please! You think I can't handle a seven-month-old?"

"Believe me, you don't wanna hear the answer to that question."

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When Phoebe gets home, she finds Piper and Paige sitting in the living room, engaged on a lighthearted but passionate debate about the band that's performing at P3 tonight.

"Hi!" she says, joining them. "Where are my husband and my son?"

"In the kitchen," says Piper, pointing her chin towards the door. "Cole is feeding Ben."

"By himself?" says Phoebe, arching her eyebrows.

"Of course not!" says Piper, with mocking indignation, "Leo's there with them. And oh, by the way, Pheebs," she adds, nonchalantly, "you're the one who's gonna clean up the kitchen's floor after they're done."

"You guys are so mean!" says Phoebe, watching her sisters' thinly veiled smiles, but she's clearly amused, too.

"What?" says Piper, softly. "They said they had everything under control, why would I doubt them?"

"After all," says Paige, with a sly smile, "it's not like he's some man-eating beast... which by the way, they could handle, too: he's just..."

She abruptly shuts up when a green and blue striped demon shimmers in. The three sisters jump to their feet, and Piper raises her hands towards him, but the demon surprises them by raising his own hands over his head and screaming:

"Don't shoot, I come in peace!"

Caught by surprise, the girls stand frozen in place, Piper with her hands still up, Phoebe with a fire ball on her open hand, and Paige looking nervously from the skinny demon to the kitchen's door. As they give him a second look, they see that he seems beaten up: his clothes are torn in several places, he has bruises on his raised arms and on his face, and his lower lip is bleeding. He doesn't seem to be much of a threaten, standing here with his eyes shut, murmuring to himself:

"Please let it be the right house, please let it be the right house..."


	2. Presumed Guilty

As usual, a few notes before I start:

Note #1: Barb and Maggie, you asked for a sequel to "The Right Whitelighter in the Right Place" in order to see Leo dealing with Piper's pregnancy. Well, I didn't really wrote a sequel, but Piper **_is_** pregnant, and if Leo thinks he knows what he's put himself into, he's got another thing coming. Just be patient and wait for the next chapters: the current scene is getting longer than I expected, but I'll get there.

Note #2: Hey, Lilian, I missed your reviews! I was hoping this story would get another review from you and -- yay! -- mission acomplished.

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Phoebe and Paige look at Piper, half expecting their older sister to tell them what to do with the ragged guy that's standing in the middle of the living room. He is slim and tall, with pointy ears and wheat blonde hair. And, of course, there's this freakish green and blue skin of his.

Before Piper can decide what to do, Cole comes from the kitchen, saying:

"Piper, before you say anything..." -- he stops short as the demon spins around and looks at him with a smile of relief.

"Belthazor!"

"Sarsour?!?"

Before the girls can do or say anything, Sarsour jumps forward, and looks dumbfounded when Cole takes a step back and shouts towards the kitchen:

"Leo! Stay in there!"

He turns to the demon with a stern look and says:

"What are you doing here?"

"Belthazor..."

"Belthazor doesn't exist any more."

"Cole, who's this?" says Phoebe, the fire ball still hovering over her opened hand.

"Someone I used to know," he says, without taking his eyes of the demon. "Sarsour, you have no business here. Leave."

"But, Belth... my friend," he quickly corrects himself, when Cole frowns menacingly, "I need your help."

"You what???" says Cole.

"For the old days..."

"For the old days I'm giving you the chance to leave my house in one piece," says Cole. "Leave, Sarsour. And don't come back."

"I..."

"Hey!" says Piper. "Demon? You heard the man. Out!"

To make her point clear, she explodes a magazine lying on the table right beside him, and the demon jumps and squeaks in fear.

"That's okay, Piper," says Cole, with a hint of pity in his eyes, "he's leaving. Sarsour," he says, almost gently, "you should never have come here, in the first place. I've left this part of my life behind. For good. I don't do evil anymore, I don't even have powers, as you must have heard. So why don't you just leave and we all forget that you were ever here?"

"No, you don't understand," says Sarsour, anxiously, "I'm in trouble, my friend. Big trouble."

"Sarsour, that's old news," Cole sighs. "As far as I remember, you were always in trouble."

"Yes, yes," says Sarsour, "and you always helped me out of it. You were a good friend. Still are. And I helped you out of trouble a couple of times, too," he adds, giving Cole an hesitant smile. "Right?"

Piper, Phoebe and Paige exchange worried looks as Cole rubs his temples and says:

"Right. You did."

"Old friend," says Sarsour, sensing Cole's hesitation and eagerly seizing the opportunity, "I'm not asking you to do anything evil, I just need you to help me prove my innocence."

"Now, that's rich..." says Paige, rolling her eyes.

Sarsour ignores her as he takes advantage of Cole's silence to pursue, speaking very fast:

"I'm being accused of something I didn't do. If they catch me now, it'll be the end for me, you know how trolls' justice works, but..."

"Whoa!" says Cole, grimacing. "Trolls? You're telling me you got in trouble with trolls?"

"Yes, but it's not my fault, I didn't do anything, but they think I did, and if they catch me before I get an attorney..."

"An attorney!" says Phoebe, shocked. "You're asking my husband to represent a demon in a trolls' court?"

"Oh, so, you're the wife!" says Sarsour, turning to her with a smile that vanishes when he sees the fire ball in her hand.

"Wow," he says, wincing. "Hot-headed, huh?" he looks at Cole again. "I see your taste for ladies hasn't changed."

"Piper, would you freeze him?" says Cole. 

"What?" says Piper, raising her eyebrows.

"Freeze him, will you?" he insists. "I wanna talk to the three of you in private, would you rather leave him all by himself in your living room?"

"No," says Piper, "I'd rather have him take his green and blue demonic butt off my house."

"Please," he pursues, clearly embarassed.

"What? What?" says Sarsour, nervously looking from Cole to Piper. "No no, no freezing! No need to freeze me! I won't cause any harm, I'll just..."

"Oh, shut up!" says Piper motioning her hands towards him and freezing him.

Before Cole can say anything, they hear Leo's voice coming from the kitchen:

"Will anyone tell me what's going on?"

"Uh, sorry, Leo," says Cole. "Come here."

Leo comes from the kitchen with Ben in his arms, but stops short as he sees Sarsour frozen in the middle of the room.

"Wow!" he says. "Honey, why is there a demon in the living room?"

"I think the point is, why hasn't he been vanquished yet?" says Piper. "Cole, care to answer that?"

"I just..." Cole shifts his weight from one foot to the other, uneasy. "I mean, if he actually didn't do anything, helping him prove it wouldn't be an act of evil, would it?"

"W-what?" says Paige, shocked.

"Baby," says Phoebe, circling the frozen demon and going to Cole, "you can't be serious. Please, say you're not."

"I... I'm just saying that, well, technically..."

"Here, honey," says Leo, talking to Piper but keeping his eyes on Cole, "hold Ben for a while."

"Cole," he says, utterly worried, "are you talking about him?" -- he points at Sarsour -- "The demon that -- for reasons I'm afraid to ask -- is standing right here in the living room? Helping him?"

"Just helping him prove his innocence, assuming he's actually..." Cole starts to say.

"Cole, he's a demon, for crying out loud!" says Piper, struggling to keep her voice down for Ben's sake.

"Half demon." says Cole.

"He's half human, too?" says Phoebe, giving Sarsour a dubious look.

"Actually, half elf."

"An elf??? His father was an elf?" -- she almost giggles, despite the seriousness of the situation.

"His mother was an elf, and his father was a demon," Cole explains, "but we're digressing here."

"Right," says Piper, firmly, "we're missing the point, and the point here is, he's a demon, which means he's evil, which means helping him would be evil, too. I'm not even sure if letting him go wouldn't be evil."

"Piper, come on, look at him!" says Cole, pointing at the frozen figure, "He's not much of a demon even when he's in his best shape, which is clearly not the case right now. He doesn't even have decent powers."

"Cole, what's with this guy?" says Phoebe, placing her hand on his arm. "Why do you care about his fate?"

"We're, uh... best friends when we were kids," says Cole, flushing sligthly, "he's only a couple of years older than me."

"You used to hang out with **_him_**?" says Paige, giving Sarsour a derogatory look. "Gee, Cole, were you member of the Math Club, too?"

"What's a math... never mind," says Cole. He turns to Phoebe again and explains: "Half breeds aren't exactly popular in the Underworld. I met Sarsour when I was five and he was seven, and for a couple of years he was my only friend. Later, when my powers developed, I had no problem being accepted by the other kids, but Sarsour's powers never developed properly. I guess elfish blood doesn't agree with demonic blood."

"Buy you kept hanging out with him?" says Phoebe.

"Uh, well, someone had to prevent the other kids from beating the crap out of him," he says, shrugging and averting her eyes. "But as grown ups, we sort of lost contact: while I was raising in rank and being assigned more important missions, he only received subaltern tasks. Then I joined the Brotherhood, and they would never dream of letting him in. When the Triad sent me after you and your sisters, I hadn't heard from him in, I don't know, twenty, twenty-five years."

"Cole, we've been through this before," says Leo. "Alliances with evil have always turned out badly. You, more than anyone else, should know that."

"Yes, but this wouldn't be really an alliance..." Cole starts to say, but Leo cuts him off.

"Exactly," he says, sternly. "That would be helping a demon, plain and simple. No excuses, no greater good to be achieved, just a service provided to evil."

As Cole rubs his temples and says nothing, Leo pursues:

"Cole, you've come such a long way, why would you now jeopardize everything you have achieved so far?"

Cole glances at Sarsour, feeling torn.

"He's going to trial," he says, without much conviction. "He's entitled to have a lawyer."

"Can't he have another demon defend him?" says Phoebe, feeling sorry for him.

"None of them would," says Cole, sadly. "I told you, he's not popular among demons. Do you think he would have come to a house full of witches if he had any other option?"

"I'm sorry, Cole," says Leo. "Really. But successful or not, he's still a demon. I don't even wanna think about what the Elders would do if they knew you helped a demon."

"You know," says Piper, timidly, "Cole's not a witch." -- she flushes as the others look at her, surprised -- "I mean, the Elders would freak out if we helped a demon, us being good witches and everything, but if all the guy needs is a lawyer..."

Leo's jaw drops. He was afraid Phoebe would take her husband's side, but his own wife pleading for the demon is a twist he never saw coming. As he looks at Piper, speechless, she proceeds, rocking Ben gently:

"It wouldn't require the use of magic. Would it?" she asks Cole.

"No, not at all," he says, not less astonished than Leo. "It would be just like any other trial... well, the trolls' law system is a little different from ours but, other than that..."

"No," says Leo, finally finding his voice, "This is... This is just..." -- he struggles for the words --- "No! Honey, you can't be serious!"

Piper glances at Sarsour, thinking of her own nerd days back in high school. She whishes someone had stood up for her, then. Then, giving her husband a sheepish look, she says:

"As long as Phoebe, Paige and I don't have anything to do with it, and no magic is involved, I guess the Elders can't say anything about Cole's actions..."

"Piper, this is not about the Elders scowling me because one of my charges broke the rules," says Leo, "it's about Cole dealing with evil, helping an evil being!"

He turns to Cole again and says, wishing he didn't have to resort to this:

"Cole, you have been this close to eternal damnation twice, are you willing to give it a third chance? How long will you keep pushing your luck? How long until you finally go too far to be saved?"

He sees Cole wince and feels terrible, but sustains his look, resolved to talk him out of this insanity at any cost.

"It wouldn't hurt," says Phoebe, suddenly, "if we just heard his story."

Seeing the grateful look Cole gives her, Leo knows this battle is lost.

"I can't believe you guys!" -- so far, Paige was silent, but now she takes one step forward and looks at them with incredulity. -- "He's evil! No matter how pathetic he is, he's evil. We're supposed to fight evil, not help them."

Leo looks at Paige with gratitude. He knows by now that he won't be able to dissuade the others, but it's good to know that one of them still hasn't lost her mind. Maybe it's her Whitelighter half, he thinks.

"You're doing it, aren't you?" he says to Cole. "You're helping him."

Cole looks at him and hesitates for a moment. Since Leo rescued him from the gates of Hell, the two men have become closer to each other. They have talked a lot since then; he told Leo about the nightmares that haunted him during the first weeks after his return, telling him things he never told Phoebe, and Leo understood him because he had been there, too: he even had his own share of nightmares. Right now, Cole knows that by trying to dissuade him, Leo is acting on his best interest, and a part of him just wants to follow his advice and stay away from what seems like one last attempt of his past to come after him. He looks from Leo to Sarsour, and then back to Leo.


	3. Presumed Innocent

Note #1: Lilian's comment about Legolas, from Lord of the Rings, was very appropriate. That's exactly what I had in my mind when I made Sarsour half elf. Sure he doesn't exactly look like Legolas, being also half demon, but his relatives from his mother's side do.

Note #2: Your reviews aren't too long at all, Lilian. If you'd rather send them by e-mail, suit yourself, but as far as I'm concerned, posting them is okay, too. As long as you keep them coming. :-)

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"Yes, I am," Cole says. He hesitates, then adds: "Sorry."

Leo sighs and puts his hands on his pockets.

"Okay," he says, "that's your call."

"Leo!" says Paige, shocked. "You can't let..." 

"As Piper said," says Leo, cutting her, "Cole isn't a witch. I can't tell him what to do." Then, turning to Piper: "Do you want me to hold Ben while you unfreeze him?"

Without a word, Piper gives him the baby, and gestures towards Sarsour, who restarts from the point he had stopped:

"... stand here, quiet as a mouse, while you..." -- he stops short as he notices the change of scenery.

"Did you just freeze me?" he asks Piper, frowning. "That was rude."

Piper rolls her eyes and motions for Cole to speak. Just then, Ben giggles, deeply amused by the funny colorful man.

"Hey! Is this your son?" Sarsour asks, taking one step in Leo's direction.

Piper immediately raises her hands towards him, and Phoebe forms another fire ball in her hand. Before they can do or say anything, though -- even before Leo can orb out with the baby -- Cole is between Sarsour and his son, one hand clasping the demon's bony shoulder.

"Don't even think about it," he says, tensely.

"But I..."

"No."

"Okay," says Sarsour, raising his hands defensively and turning away from Ben, "okay..."

"Now," says Cole, as Sarsour is at a safe distance, "what exactly have you put yourself into?"

"You mean," says Sarsour, hopefully, "that you're gonna help me?"

"I mean, what exactly have you put yourself into?" Cole says, cautiously.

"Well, you see, there's this village where I used to, uh... have some business. A couple of days ago someone broke into their granary: all the food the trolls had saved for the winter is gone, and they're not happy. And you know how careful trolls are with their provisions, it's almost impossible to steal from them: someone must have done some spying and sold the information, and they think this someone was me. But it wasn't!"

"Are you sure?" says Cole, raising an eyebrow. "Because it seems like the kind of thing you'd do."

"Hey, I'm not stupid!" says Sarsour. "I don't mess with trolls: they're big and mean."

"Sarsour, you understand that the minute you lie to me, I'm off this case, don't you?"

"I won't," Sarsour assures. "So, you're gonna help me?"

"Yes," Cole sighs. "But you know the rules," he adds, "in order to have the right to a fair judgement, you must turn yourself in."

"I will. I will. But you know you have to...?"

"I know." Turning to Phoebe, Cole asks: "Baby, can you get me a piece of paper, and a pen... and a knife?"

Phoebe raises her eyebrows, but goes get the items he asked for. While the others wait for her to come back, they remain in an awkward silence.

"So," says Sarsour, after a few moments, giving Cole an intrigued look, "you gave up the throne, and the powers, and everything?"

"Yup."

"Hum!" -- he looks around, examining the room and the people in it with great curiosity -- "Don't you regret it? I mean, you're not like me: even without the Source you were very powerful. Everyone always thought you'd achieve great things."

"I did achieve great things," says Cole. He looks at his son, and the baby squeals with delight and smiles at him. "Things greater than anything a demon could aspire."

Sarsour gives him a curious look, then starts to ask:

"So, you've never again seen... Oh, okay, here's your wife." He stops as he sees Phoebe entering the room.

"Thanks, baby," says Cole, taking the things she brought him.

Phoebe gives him a curious look, but decides to question him about what she's just overheard later. They all watch as Cole writes a few words on the paper, then uses the knife to cut the palm of his own hand, and lets some drops of blood fall on the paper. Before giving this quite unusual document to Sarsour, he says, gravely:

"Now, Sarsour, I want you to listen to me, and listen very carefully. I'm gonna help you out of this. For the old days. But if anyone in my family gets hurt because of you, I swear I'm gonna make you wish I had left the trolls finish you. Did I make myself clear?"

"I would never betray you," says Sarsour, for the first time looking genuinely offended.

"Fine," says Cole, handing him the paper. "Now go: you have to get there by your own means before the trolls find you."

"I know," he says, carefully folding the paper and putting it in his pocket. "Thank you. You won't regret this."

He holds out his hand, and Cole shakes it, saying with a half smile:

"You know, last time you said that, I ended up fighting a very angry winged dragon."

"Yes, and you beat him." says Sarsour, smiling, before shimmering out.

The others remain silent for a moment, until Piper gives Ben to Phoebe and timidly approaches Leo.

"Honey," she says, "I know you're upset but..."

"Piper, I'm not upset," Leo says. "I'm worried."

He gives a concerned look towards Phoebe and Cole, then adds, turning to Piper again:

"I know that I can't expect you not to do something just because I think it's not a good idea, but it works both ways: just because I can't forbid it, it doesn't mean I have to like it." -- as he sees Cole open his mouth to say something, Leo raises his hand to silence him up -- "And I'd appreciate your not trying to convince me otherwise. You have a point on his right to have an attorney: I'll grant you this much. I just wish this attorney wasn't you."

Leo sighs and proceeds:

"Represent him in court if you must, but please, **_please_** restrict yourself to the trial, and by all means keep the girls out of it. I really mean it, Cole: no magic involved, otherwise I'm gonna be way past upset."

Leo suddenly looks up and grimaces.

"Are they calling?" Piper asks, concerned.

"Yes," he sighs. "Is it just me or have they been calling me way too often lately?"

"I always think it's too often," she says, softly. "Honey, is your stomach better?"

"Yes, I'm fine," he says, kissing her lightly on the lips before orbing out.

"Is Leo sick?" Phoebe asks.

"Can a dead person get sick?" Paige asks, intrigued.

"He was kind of nauseated this morning," says Piper. "I don't think he can actually get sick, but he has been working a lot lately, and has been kind of edgy, so maybe he is somatizing... assuming such thing is possible."

"Do you think he's gonna be okay with, uh... all of this?" says Phoebe.

"He will," sighs Piper. "He always does," she adds, a little bitterly.

"Hum, I'm sorry for bringing you into this," says Cole.

"Don't be," says Piper. "I believe you're doing the right thing. It's just that Leo's the one who always have to go up there and tell it to Elders."

"I know you guys don't wanna hear this," says Paige, "but this time I agree with the Elders. I think you're making a big mistake." Then, raising both hands: "Then again, what do I know? I'm just the little sister. I'll be in my room if you need me... to fight evil, not help them."

Piper, Phoebe and Cole watch as she walks upstairs. Then, Piper sighs heavily and says:

"So much for a peaceful, relaxing Sunday afternoon. I'd make myself some tea, but right now I'm afraid to see the state the kitchen is in," she adds, giving Ben's applesauce covered face a meaningful look. "I'll settle with a nice hot bath instead."

As she, too, leaves the room, Cole glances at his son and says:

"Baby, since you're home, would you mind finishing feeding him?"

Seeing Phoebe smirk, he adds, defensively:

"It's harder than it seems, he doesn't stand still and keeps trying to grab the spoon."

"Come on, sweetie," says Phoebe, smiling at her son, "let's finish this snack of yours," -- she reaches out and grabs Cole's arm before he can sneak out -- "while daddy watches and learns."


	4. Interlude #1

"Phoebe, would you pass me the pepper?" says Piper, after tasting the sauce. "It's right there on the counter."

"Sure," says Phoebe, handing her the pepper pot.

She watches as Piper adds a pinch of pepper to the sauce, tastes it again and smiles, pleased with the result.

"You know, when I was two months pregnant I couldn't get anywhere near the kitchen, let alone cook."

"Yeah, everybody keeps saying that my good fortune won't last," says Piper with a smile, "but so far I can't complain: I haven't experienced any cravings or morning sickness..."

"Which is so totally unfair," says Cole, entering the kitchen.

"Excuse me?" says Piper, placing her hands on her hips with mock indignation.

"Oh, come on! Phoebe almost drove me crazy with all the cravings and mood swings," he says as puts his arm around Phoebe's waist. "I was dying to see how Leo would deal with it."

"It wasn't that bad..." says Phoebe, cuddling with him.

"Baby, you sent me shimmering all over the world after the exotic fruits you craved for."

"And you obliged because you loved me," she says with her baby voice.

"Honey," says Cole, kissing the tip of her nose, "that had nothing to do with love. Remember all those times when you woke me up in the middle of the night, asking me if I'd still love you when you became fat and ugly? I didn't kill you then, did I? **_That_** was love. I went out of my way to satisfy your cravings because I was afraid of you."

"What?!?"

"You were an emotionally unstable woman with the power to throw fire balls! Upper level demons wouldn't enter the throne room to see me when you were there."

"I resent that!" says Phoebe. She tries to shove Cole away, but he tightens his grip on her, chuckling.

"Go away!" she says, pouting. "You're mean."

"No, I'm not," he says, keeping her within his embrace. "Besides, you love me: you'd miss me if I was gone."

"What's so funny?" says Paige, entering the kitchen.

"Nothing," says Phoebe, still struggling with Cole, which just gives him an excuse to squeeze her tighter.

Just then, Leo orbs in, eating what looks like a very flavored fritter.

"Honey, dinner is almost ready!" says Piper. "You're gonna spoil your appetite."

"No, I'm not," he says. "I'm still hungry. In fact, I'm starving. But I just had this need for acaraje, and..."

"Acara-what?" says Paige.

"Acaraje. Brazilian food," says Leo, taking the paper towel Piper is handing him and wiping the palm oil from the corner of his mouth.

"You orbed all the way to Brazil just to have a pie?" Phoebe asks, arching her eyebrows.

"Uh, yes," says Leo, embarrassed.

"What's it made of?" Paige asks, giving the fritter a suspicious look.

"Uh, beans," says Leo, "and shrimp, lots of pepper, hum... palm oil, I think..."

"Honey, what about the Elders? What did they want?" Piper asks, slightly impatient. "Did it have anything to do with Sas... Sarsa... what kind of name is this, for crying out loud?"

"Sarsour. It's an Arabic name," Cole explains. "It means 'bug'." -- Piper raises an eyebrow and he shrugs -- "It was his father's idea of a joke."

"Sweet," says Piper, grimacing. Then turning to Leo again: "So, the Elders...?"

"Weren't exactly thrilled," says Leo. "Still, they reacted better than I had feared they would. Basically, they just told me to keep a very close eye on you," -- he points at Cole -- "until this is over. And of course they reinforced what I had already told you: no magic at all."

He finishes his acaraje, cleans his mouth and reaches out to put the paper towel in the trash, but Piper snaps it from his hand.

"Ugh!" she says, holding the towel between her index finger and her thumb. "God, Leo, look at how much oil there is in this thing! If that's what you have been eating lately, it's no wonder you feel sick. Not to mention the weird combinations of food!..."

"Honey, it did taste good, believe it or not," Leo says, defensively.

"What tasted good?" Paige asks.

"Last week I came downstairs in the middle of the night," says Piper, "and found this man eating the cold remains of a pizza... with peanut butter on top of it."

"EEW!!!!" say Paige, Phoebe and Cole all at the same time.

"You," says Cole, pointing at Leo, "are a sick, sick man!"

"What are you, the food police?" Leo snaps, angrily.

"Uh, sorry," says Cole, taken aback by Leo's sudden outburst.

Leo blushes as he notices the four people staring at him in shocked surprise.

"That's okay, I, uh... I'm sorry," he says.

"Honey," says Piper, concerned, "are you okay? During the last few weeks you've been sort of... not like yourself."

"I know," he sighs, rubbing his face, "and I'm sorry. For some reason my nerves have been on edge lately."

"Can Whitelighters take sick days?" Paige asks.

"No," says Leo, smiling, "because Whitelighters don't get sick. I'm not sick, I'm just..." -- he frowns, struggling for the right word.

"May I say something?" says Cole. "I mean, do you promise not to throw a knife or something on me?"

Leo just motions him to speak and he proceeds:

"You're acting just like Phoebe did when she was pregnant."

Seeing Leo's annoyed look, Cole insists:

"No, I'm serious: the cravings for strange foods, the mood swings, you even had morning sickness today. Piper, on the other hand, hasn't experienced any of those things."

"Look," says Leo, not so sure whether to feel amused or upset, "if you're implying what I think you are, I can assure you that you're wrong: I don't know how demonic bodies work -- and **_please_** don't enlighten me -- but human bodies just don't work this way."

"But Leo," says Phoebe, "you're not human. I mean, you are, but you're also dead."

"Oh, please!" says Leo, "That's totally impossible!"

"And a dead man having a baby with a living woman, **_that's_** possible?" Cole pursues. "Come on, Leo, how many witches do you know that became pregnant with a Whitelighter's baby?"

They all immediately look at Paige, and Piper says:

"Maybe we should summon mom... just in case."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Thirty minutes later, Phoebe, Cole and Paige watch in silence as Piper tries to cheer up a very unhappy Leo.

"Honey, at least now we know there's nothing wrong with you: another seven months and it'll be over." she says, fondling his hair.

"Seven months..." he moans, with his elbows resting on the kitchen table and his head in his hands. "Piper, this is not helping."

"You know what would help?" says Piper. "If **_someone_** would wipe this smile off his face."

"Hey, I've stopped laughing, haven't I?" Cole says, throwing his hands up.

"You know, maybe it won't even last that long," says Phoebe. "I only had morning sickness during my first trimester."

"See, honey?" says Piper. "I'm already entering the third month, maybe you'll feel better soon."

"It's not even morning and I'm feeling sick." Leo grunts, without raising his head.

"Would you like some ice cream?" Phoebe asks. "Mom said it used to work for Sam."

"No," Leo sighs. "I just wanna go upstairs, lay down and feel miserable. Let me know when dinner is ready, will you?"

"Sure," says Piper, kissing his cheek. "Go have some rest."

As soon as Leo orbs out, from the baby monitor come the happy squeals that announce that Ben is _"awake and getting bored, get me out of this crib!"_.

"I'll get him," says Cole, standing up.

As soon as he's at a safe distance, Piper, Phoebe and Paige look at each other for a moment, and then burst into laughter.

"I thought they'd never leave!" says Paige, when she catches her breath again.

"Oh God, me too," says Phoebe, wiping the tears from her eyes. "I didn't know for how longer I'd be able to hold back the laughter."

"I was holding it back since mom told us about Sam being morning sick during a Whitelighters' staff meeting." says Piper. "Does that mean I'm a horrible person?"

"Not at all, honey!" says Paige. "It's not your fault. It was hilarious: this whole thing is."

"Yeah, but don't let Cole hear you saying this," says Phoebe, smiling, "I'm sure he's gonna have a lot of fun at Leo's expenses, even without us encouraging him.

"Well, this is all very interesting but I should finish dinner," says Piper, standing up. "Meanwhile, would you guys set the table?"

"Sure," say Phoebe and Paige. As they leave the kitchen, Piper has already turned her attention back to dinner.


	5. The Defendant's Attorney

Monday dawn

When the noise starts, Paige grunts and pulls the covers over her head, but soon the commotion at the front door becomes too loud to be ignored: someone is pounding on the door, strong enough to make the window glasses vibrate with every knock.

As Paige gets up and reaches out for her robe, it sinks in that, whoever is at the door, they're much stronger than your everyday delivery boy, not to mention that a quick glance at the clock shows it's only 4:30 a.m.

As she reaches the stairs, the door to Piper and Leo's bedroom is opened, and Piper mumbles:

"What's going on?"

"That's what I intend to find out," says Paige.

As she starts to walk downstairs, followed by Piper and by a very drowsy Leo, with the corner of her eye she sees Phoebe and Cole come stumbling out of their bedroom.

"Hold your horses!" she says as she walks through the foyer. "Now, what..." -- Paige's voice trails off when she sees the huge troll standing at the door.

"Let me in," he grunts, "before someone sees me."

"I... uh... ah..." -- Paige stares at him with big round eyes.

"Paige, get out of the way!" says Piper, regaining her wits and raising her hands.

"Where's the defendant's attorney?" the troll asks, starting to show signs of impatience.

"The... Piper, wait!" -- Cole runs past Leo and catches up with Piper in the foyer. She gives him a bewildered look and he explains, pointing at the troll: "He must be the prosecutor."

"Yes, I am," grunts the troll. "Now, tell the woman to get out of my way. Soon there'll be people on the street."

"Sure," says Cole, taking Paige by her arm and making her move aside. "Come in."

"Why did you come so early?" he asks, as the troll ducks to walk through the door.

"Empty streets," says the troll. "It's not my fault that the stupid demon has chosen a human attorney. Do you think I enjoy coming to San Francisco?"

"Right," says Cole, yawning.

Then, looking at the four people still standing here in their pajamas, he says:

"Sorry. I'll handle this, why don't you go back to sleep?"

"How did he knew where to find you?" Piper asks, giving the troll a suspicious look as she takes Paige's arm and pulls her still stunned sister towards the stairs.

"Good olfaction," says the troll, showing the document with Cole's blood on it.

As the others go back to their bedrooms, Cole scratches his head and looks around, a bit uncertain, wondering where a ten feet high troll can sit.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"So much for no magic involved..." Paige mutters as they get to the second floor.

"Cole didn't use magic," says Phoebe, defending her husband. "And the troll is just... being a troll, I guess."

"A troll in my living room..." Piper sighs. "I just hope Cole doesn't let him break anything."

"I'm not so sure about the 'no magic' part..." Paige insists. "He gave the troll a document signed with his own blood."

"Alright," says Phoebe, annoyed, "Leo, what do you think?"

"That I need to throw up," says Leo, pushing her aside and rushing into the bathroom.

Phoebe and Paige grimace as Piper follows him, and they choose to drop the subject for now. They go back to their respective bedrooms, hoping to have some sleep before it's time to get up again and go to work.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Monday morning

Cole bites the tip of the pen, studying the names written on the cardboard in his hand. On the top of the list he wrote "Prosecution Witnesses", and now he writes an interrogation mark next to one of the names, before placing the cardboard on the top of a pile by his right side. He's sitting on the floor of the sunroom, surrounded by cardboards on which he's written the information he obtained from the prosecutor, the story Sarsour told him, what he remembers from the trolls' laws, the information he still needs... He'd rather work at his desk or -- considering he actually doesn't have one -- at the kitchen table. But he's alone with Ben, and this was the only arrangement his son found acceptable: he's lying on a blanket spread on the floor right beside Cole, along with all his favorite toys.

Cole gives a loving look towards his son, who's now very busy chewing a rubber duck. As if sensing his father's stare, he raises his head, returning his look and happily mumbling some baby gibberish.

"Yeah, I love you too," says Cole, smiling.

He turns his attention back to his notes, and soon he's so absorbed with his work that he doesn't even hear when Piper arrives from the market, fifteen minutes later. She stops at the doorway to check on them, and gasps when she sees that Ben has crawled to the edge of the blanket and grabbed a couple of cardboards, which he's now chewing with great enthusiasm.

Suddenly raising his head, Cole looks at her, notices the look in her eyes and follows her stare.

"Oh, no, Ben, don't!" he reaches out for the cards, but Ben thinks it's a game and holds them tighter, giggling. "No, son, don't do that! Give dad the cards, come on, they're not toys!"

"Wait, Cole!" says Piper, rushing towards them and kneeling on the blanket next to Ben. "This way you're gonna tear up the cards."

She waves her car keys in front of Ben, making them chime and catching his attention.

"Here, sweetie," she says, smiling. "You like the keys, don't you? Do you want the keys?"

Ben laughs and reaches out for the keys, dropping the cardboards, and Cole quickly rescues them. Piper then takes the baby in her arms and raises him above her head, making him scream in delight.

"There," she says, bringing her nephew close to her and kissing him several times, "you're such a good boy!"

She turns to Cole, who's looking at the drool covered cardboards with a very unhappy expression.

"Cole, why were you sitting on the floor, on the first place?" she asks.

"Because Ben wanted company," he sighs. "I so need an office."

"Well," says Piper, "I can't help you with that, but here's what I can do: I can baby sit while you work."

"Really?" he says. "That'd help a lot."

"Sure, why not? It's not like I'd be helping you with the case or something," -- Piper blushes, because that's exactly what she intends to do -- "I mean, can't an aunt spend some quality time with her nephew?"

"Sure," he says, smiling. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," she says, smiling back at him. Then she stands up, with Ben in her arms. "Good luck."

As she leaves the room, Cole collects all the cardboards and moves to one of the white wicker chairs next to a glass top table. He looks at the cards Ben's chewed and waves his head.

"I'm definitely gonna need some luck," he sighs, before getting back to work.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Monday afternoon

"You know," says Leo, "your mother was right: lemon ice cream does help."

"I'm glad to hear that," says Piper with a smile. She's sitting by his side on the couch, sewing a button on one of his shirts. "Can I have some?"

"Hum, I don't know..." he says, with mock doubt, "I'm not sure you're entitled to it, since you're not getting sick..."

She pouts, and he smiles and gives her a spoonful of ice cream. Just then, they hear Ben humming to himself on the second floor.

"Should we go get him?" Leo asks, looking at the baby monitor.

"Nah," says Piper. "He sounds happy. Let's enjoy this rare moment of peace a little longer..."

Leo smiles and leans down to kiss her. Just when his lips are about to touch hers, Sarsour shimmers before them, startling them both.

"What are you doing here?" says Piper, straightening up. "You should be waiting for your trial!"

"I am," he says. "I have an appointment with my attorney. Uh, what time is it? Did I arrive too early? They said I should be here at 3 p.m., isn't it 3 p.m. yet?"

"Relax, you're right on time," says Piper, glancing at her watch. "Your attorney, on the other hand..."

When the phone rings, she and Leo exchange a look.

"Now, I wonder who this could be..." she says, rolling her eyes as she reaches out for the phone.

"Hello?"

"Piper? Cole here."

"Cole, hi!" she says, smirking. "We were just talking about you. Is there anything you'd like to tell us?" she asks, softly.

"He's already there, isn't he?" Cole asks, grimacing.

"Oh yes, he is," says Piper. "But I can't blame him, since he had an appointment with his attorney at 3 p.m. and it's..." -- she looks at her watch -- "3:02 p.m."

"I'm awfully sorry, Piper. I didn't say anything to you because I thought I'd be home way before three o'clock. But there were like one million people in the bank today. Is Leo home, too?"

"Yup."

Cole swears under his breath and asks:

"Is he pissed off?"

"Hum... a little," says Piper, barely hiding a smile at the way Leo's glaring at Sarsour, while this one examines the room with great interest.

"Great..." Cole sighs. "Can you stay with Sarsour until I get home? It won't take long."

"Well," says Piper, "it's not like I actually have a choice, is it?"

"Uh, no," he admits. "But I figured out it'd sound better if I asked."

Piper's glad he can't see her smile now. She asks in her most stern voice:

"Have you at least left the bank already?"

"Sure, I'm on my way back home, I..."

"Wait. On your way back home? You're speaking on the cell phone while you drive? Is the phone in hands free mode?"

"Yes, Ma'am," says Cole, rolling his eyes. _The woman is only two months pregnant and she already sounds like a mother_. "I'll be there in ten minutes, okay?"

"Make it fifteen," says Piper. "Slow down, there's no point in killing yourself because of a few lousy minutes."

"I'm **_not_** running," says Cole, releasing his foot from the gas pedal. _How does she do it?_ "Thank you, Piper. You're the best."

"Yeah, yeah..." she says with a smirk. "Bye."

After she hangs up, she turns to Leo and Sarsour:

"He apologizes, the bank was more crowded than he had expected, but he's already on his way home."

They hear Ben through the baby monitor again: he's starting to get restless.

"I guess I'd better go see Ben now," says Piper. "I mean," she adds, giving Leo an uncertain look, "unless you'd rather..."

"No, I'd rather stay here, honey," says Leo, unwilling to let Sarsour alone with his wife, half elf or not.

As Piper leaves the room, Leo and Sarsour remain in silence for an awkward moment. Noticing Sarsour stare at his ice cream bowl, Leo sighs and says:

"That's lemon ice cream. Will you join me?"

"Sure," says Sarsour, oblivious to the fact that Leo's offered it just out of politeness.

Leo stands up and says, heading to the kitchen:

"Follow me."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Leo is closing the freezer door when Cole bursts in, breathless.

"Leo, I'm sorry, I..." -- he stops short and his jaw drops as he looks from Leo to Sarsour, each one holding an ice cream bowl.

"Not a word," Leo warns.

"Far from me to say anything," says Cole, watching with great amusement as Sarsour feasts himself. "But since everyone is having ice cream, can I have a bowl, too?"

"Suit yourself," says Leo, moving away from the freezer.

As Cole opens the freezer door and reaches out for the ice cream pack, he says in a low voice:

"So, you're being the good host."

"Don't push it," says Leo in the same tone, "you lost your guest privileges when you became part of the family."

"I can live with that," says Cole, smirking. Then turning to Sarsour: "Come on, let's work at the sunroom."

"Listen," he says to Leo, before following Sarsour through the door, "I can take it from here. If you and Piper want to go for a walk or something, until we're done here..."

"Actually," says Leo, "I'd rather stay here during this meeting of yours. I mean, if you don't mind."

"With you staying here through the meeting? No. With the fact that your presence will be part of the 'keeping a close eye on me' policy? A little."

"Well," says Leo, walking past him and heading to the sunroom, "keep in mind that I'm doing this out of concern for your welfare and get over it."


	6. The Defendant

When Piper comes from upstairs with Ben in her arms, she's very surprised to find Leo, Cole and Sarsour sitting together in the sunroom.

"Do you boys need anything?" she says, giving Leo an inquisitive look.

"No, thanks, honey," he says.

"Okay," she says, still intrigued. "Ben and I will be upstairs, then."

Piper almost starts to say something else, then changes her mind and just leaves with Ben.

"Now," says Cole, picking up the first cardboard, "let's work."

"Right," says Sarsour, finishing his ice cream.

"So," says Cole, "one of the prosecution assertions is that you were seen in the surroundings of the granary quite often on the past couple of months. Why is that, Sarsour?"

"I told you," says Sarsour, fumbling with the spoon, "I had business there."

"At the granary? What kind of business?" Cole pursues.

"Well," says Sarsour, "not quite at the granary."

"Then, where?"

"At the Market Square."

Cole sighs heavily.

"Sarsour," he says, "we don't have all day, and you know that. What kind of business, and with who? All kinds of creatures frequent those markets."

"Well, if you must know..."

"I do."

"I went there to meet my cousin."

"I didn't know your father had any siblings," says Cole, surprised.

"He didn't," says Sarsour. "My mother did."

"Your m... What?"

"I've been in touch with my mother's family for the last few months. My cousin Tadrien has business with some guys at the Market Square, so I went there to meet him."

"Really?" says Cole, all thoughts about the case momentarily forgotten. "And how did it go?"

"Actually, it was fine. He's a nice guy. Told me things about my mother, and introduced me to my other cousins... I even have some nephews and nieces: it turns out my mother had a daughter, too -- a fully elf daughter."

"That's great," says Cole, smiling. "So they don't have a problem with you being half demon?"

"Well, it seems that elves are kind of used to having half breeds around," says Sarsour, "they don't make such a big deal of it. Actually, they consider me not so much a half demon / half elf guy as an elf with some demonic blood."

Leo politely hides his mouth behind his hand and fakes a cough, and Cole himself can barely suppress a smile at his "elf friend". 

"That's why I think things will work better for me in their town," Sarsour continues, not noticing their amusement.

"In their town?" says Cole, arching his eyebrows.

"Uh, yes. They said I'd be welcome there, and I decided to accept the offer."

"So, you're leaving the Underworld?" says Cole, utterly surprised.

"Well, yes" says Sarsour. "You see, things have become rather riotous down there since, uh... since you and your wife left. There have been some attempts to take the throne, but so far the Underworld remains in anarchy. It's not so bad for the upper level demons, 'cause they get to do whatever they want, without a Source to boss them around, but for guys like me... talk about hazardous environment."

"I see," says Cole. "Well, I'm glad things are working out for you and, if your kin say you're an elf..." -- he throws his hands up, smiling -- "who am I to disagree?"

Then he adds, in a more serious manner:

"And this is good for our case, too: part of the prosecution case is based on your suspicious presence in the vicinity of the granary. Now, with your cousin's testimony..."

"Is it really necessary?" Sarsour asks. Seeing Cole's surprised look, he explains, slightly embarrassed: "Some of my relatives have never seen me: I didn't want them to see me for the first time while I'm sitting in the defendant's seat."

"Would you rather have them meet you during your execution?" Cole asks.

"You're right," sighs Sarsour. "I'll tell the court officer where to find Tadrien..."

"Come on," says Cole, slapping his shoulder, "they know about your past, don't they? I don't think a trial -- on which you're gonna be found not guilty, by the way -- is gonna scare them away. Believe me," he adds with a smirk, "once people decide you're family, it's virtually impossible to get rid of them."

Leo smiles briefly at Cole's remark, but says nothing. Meanwhile, having cracked a smile from Sarsour, Cole writes Tadrien's name on the cardboard he's been holding.

"Also," he adds, "it'll remind the jury of your elven ancestry, which is very good, too. Trolls may not like elves, but they find them much more trustable than demons. Now," he says, moving to the next card, "they also claim that you had full knowledge of the granary's operation: safety measures, guard schedules, floor plans... Did you?

"No."

"Well, lack of knowledge is hard to prove," says Cole, "but as long as the prosecution can't prove otherwise, I think we can handle this." -- he looks at the third cardboard -- "Now, here's a tough one: they caught you inside the granary on the day after the robbery. Covering your tracks, according to, uh... Flint. What?" he says, seeing Sarsour twitch his mouth.

"Flint is a swindler," says Sarsour. "He owns me money, but he won't admit it. That's why I was there: to ask for the money he lost on gambling. And then all those guards came out of nowhere, saying I was a spy..."

"And you tried to run away?" says Cole, reading the card.

"Well, yes," Sarsour admits, "they were big, and they were angry, and there were a whole lot of them. I ran, but they cornered me."

"I see your point," says Cole, "but you have to agree that it made you look quite suspicious."

He toys with the card in his hand for a while, then writes the word "gamble" next to Flint's name.

"And I suppose there's no one that would confirm your story?"

"No," says Sarsour, dejectedly, "that's why he keeps denying it: he knows I can't prove it."

Cole rolls the card around in his hand, pensively, then says:

"Okay, forget about the debt for a while. Has anyone seen you discuss this matter with him? Anyone that could testify that you had been claiming he owned you money for... how long?" 

"Two weeks," says Sarsour. "There are the guys who work in the granary with him."

"Names, Sarsour, names."

"Cliff. And Moraine. They both have seen me ask for my money. But they also have seen him say he owns me nothing."

"Still," says Cole, writing the names down, "let's see what we can do with this."

He writes the names of Tadrien, Flint, Cliff and Moraine on a blank card and gives it to Sarsour, saying:

"Tell the court officer that these are the guys I want summoned for the trial."

"So," says Sarsour, smiling anxiously, "do you think I stand a chance?"

Despite of the doubts he holds, Cole never flinches as he says:

"Sure. The prosecutor told me the trial will be on Thursday, and I'll have everything ready by then." -- he glances at his watch -- "Hum! Time does fly when we're having fun."

"Is our time over?" Sarsour asks.

"I'm afraid so," says Cole. "But don't worry: I didn't have any more questions, one way or the other."

"Okay," says Sarsour, standing up. "Again, thank you, my friend." he says, as he and Cole shake hands.

"You're welcome," says Cole. He lets go of Sarsour's hand and watches as he shimmers out.

After Sarsour is gone, Cole's smile vanishes, and he turns his attention to his notes with a sigh.

"You don't look so confident now," says Leo, watching as he collects the cards.

"This case is a hard nut to crack," says Cole.

"Is it?" says Leo, intrigued. "It seems to me that they only have circumstantial evidences on him."

"It's a trolls' court, Leo, not a human court." -- Cole chuckles, despite of himself -- "There's no such thing as circumstantial evidence, as there's no 'innocent until proven guilty', no Miranda rights, no second instances. Whether you get in the good graces of the jury, or you don't. And this jury consists of twelve very upset trolls that have worked hard for the past nine months just to see the fruit of their work be stolen. They are willing to take it on someone. Anyone."

"It really sounds worse when you put it that way," says Leo, grimacing. He hears the familiar chiming sound inside his head and adds: "I gotta go. Good luck."

"Thanks," says Cole.

After Leo orbs out, he spreads the cardboards over the table, takes a notepad and starts to sketch out his strategy.


	7. Interlude #2

Note: I hope CharmingTia doesn't mind me borrowing a little something from her story. It's only for this chapter, I swear. But when I checked the TV Guide Online and saw who was on TV at the same time and day this scene takes place, I just couldn't resist (those of you who've read "The Pen is Mightier" will recognize it when you see it).

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Tuesday morning

Cole whistles a jazz tune as he walks downstairs. He's managed to tuck his son in for his mid-morning nap all by himself, and there's no one home for him to brag to. Such a shame. Oh well, he can at least reward himself by taking a break from Sarsour's case until lunch.

As he enters the living room, Cole's surprised to find Leo there, sitting on the couch and zapping through the channels.

"Hey," he says.

"Hey," says Leo, keeping his eyes on the screen.

Cole hesitates, but as Leo doesn't say anything else, he shrugs and sits beside him on the couch without another word, watching as the images change quickly on the screen.

_Talk show. Who's this guy? He looks like... Too late, gone. News? I hope not, I'm in the mood for something lighter. Okay, gone. Martha Stewart? For some reason this woman gives me the creeps. Good, she's gone, too. Oh my God, please not the Teletubbies... Thank you! Moesha? Well, a sitcom would be... Oops, gone. You know, this isn't so funny when you're not the one holding the remote._

"Didn't you have a staff meeting today?" says Cole, trying to make small talk.

"Yup."

_What are those people saying? Hey, that's Spanish! I can't speak Spanish, I... Okay, problem solved. What's this, a movie? It seems interesting... Oh well, it **seemed** interesting. Hey, M*A*S*H! I like it! No, don't do that... Damn it!_

"I thought those meetings had mandatory attendance."

"They do."

_Hum! Another movie? It seems... Wow, that was fast! Magnum, that's not so... Okay, gone, too._

"Why aren't you there, then?"

Leo turns to him with an annoyed look and says:

"I was dismissed early. Now, if you'll excuse me..." he motions with the remote towards the TV.

At this point, though, Cole's curiosity has been aroused.

"Now, wait a second," he says, a small grin forming on his lips. "They dismissed you from your mandatory attendance staff meeting so that you could watch TV at home? I don't think so."

Leo glares briefly at him before turning his attention back to the screen, and this only piques Cole's curiosity further.

"What happened up there? Come on, Leo, spill it out!"

"Nothing happened," Leo grunts.

"Yeah, right," Cole quips. "You know, it's not like I have to go to work or something: I have nothing better to do with my time than be on your back until you tell me what happened."

Leo sighs heavily, but still doesn't answer.

"Well, I didn't mean to try and guess, but you're leaving me with no choice..." Cole says, with an amused glint in his eyes. He scratches his chin and narrows his eyes in mock concentration. "Now, let me see: it must have been something huge, otherwise they'd never have dismissed you from one of their precious meetings."

Seeing that Leo won't respond to his taunting, Cole pursues:

"You didn't throw up during the meeting, did you? 'Cause that would've been..."

"I yelled at one of the Elders," Leo snaps.

"You... excuse me, you what?" -- Cole's eyes grow as big as possible.

"He was talking -- I don't even remember about what -- and his voice was getting on my nerves." -- Leo toys with the remote, embarrassed -- "I was wishing he would just shut up, and only when I saw everybody staring at me in shocked silence I realized that I had actually said it out loud. Apparently, really loud."

"I'm glad to see that my misfortune amuses you," he adds, sourly, as Cole bends over, laughing.

It takes a few minutes for Cole to catch his breath. When he does, Leo sighs, dejectedly:

"If it was just for the cravings and the morning sickness, I could handle it. It's this emotional roller coaster that's driving me insane. There are days when I wake up in the morning feeling just fine, then on my way to the bathroom I start to feel all sad and depressed, and by the time I'm done showering, I just wanna go back to bed, pull the covers over my head and stay there all day. Then, as I leave my bedroom, Paige accidentally bumps into me on the hallway and it takes all I have not to throw her against the wall. When I finally get to the kitchen, I find out that Piper has made pancakes, and all of a sudden life is beautiful again. How can anyone live like this? How do women handle this?"

Leo sighs and runs his hand across his face.

"You're not gonna cry, are you?" says Cole, giving him a suspicious look.

"No," says Leo, annoyed. "Just because I'm having the same experiences as women do, it doesn't mean I can't handle it on a mature, reasonable way. Like men do."

"I see," says Cole. "So, basically you're gonna ignore what you're feeling and just hope it'll eventually go away?"

"Sure," says Leo, pointing the remote to the TV again.

Cole looks at him for a while, then shrugs.

"Fine by me," he says.

Leo starts to zap again, and Cole throws the TV Guide on him, saying:

"Okay, mood swings or not, just choose a freaking channel and stick to it."

Leo gives him a surprised look and he adds:

"That's annoying! Now I understand why Phoebe always takes the remote from me."

"Okay, so what's gonna be?" says Leo. "Sports or news?"

"Leo," Cole says, giving him a meaningful look. "we're home alone."

"Oh," says Leo, when the meaning of the words sink in. "So, cartoons?"

"Sure," says Cole, standing up. "See what's on Cartoon Network while I'll get us some chips."


	8. Pillow Talk

**Warning!** Note that the rating has changed to PG-13. I was thinking of this whole Cole/Source thing and decided I needed some P/C scenes to cheer me up. That's the beauty of being the author. :-)))

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Tuesday evening

"Hi, husband."

"Hi, wife." -- Cole raises his head from the papers he's been working on and smiles at her -- "Where's our son?"

"Bathed, nursed and tucked in," says Phoebe, circling the dinner table and standing behind him, gently massaging his shoulders and neck.

"Such a good mother..." he says, smiling as his sore muscles begin to relax under her touch. Only now Cole realizes how tense he was, having worked on the case for the entire afternoon.

"Yes," she whispers, leaning down so that her lips are close to his ear, "and now I was thinking of being a good wife, too." -- she undoes the first button of his shirt, slips one hand inside it and starts to rub his chest -- "A very good one..."

Cole closes his eyes and sighs in contentment as her fingers find his nipple. He knows they're home alone and, since Ben is already sleeping... Then he thinks of the case that's going to trial on the day after tomorrow, feeling a pang of guilt.

"As tempting as it sounds," he says, opening his eyes and holding her wrist, preventing her from going any further, "I'm drowning in paperwork here, and if I can't put these notes into an understandable order now, by tomorrow I won't be able to make any sense out of them."

"Well," she says giving an amused look towards the cardboards, paper sheets and post-it notes spread all over the table, but still toying with his nipple, "you do have some mess here. I never knew you're so disorganized."

"I, uh..." his voice trails off as she starts nibbling his earlobe.

"Are you sure you can't finish it tomorrow morning?" she whispers against his skin.

Cole groans in response, but still manages to stop her other hand a couple of inches above his belt.

"I wish I could," he moans.

Seeing that he really means it, Phoebe stops her onslaught. She withdraws her hands, wraps her arms around his neck and plants a sound kiss on his cheek.

"So," she says, "you're in this much trouble, huh?"

"I'm afraid so," he sighs. "Even I didn't know I was so disorganized. I always had an assistant to save me from myself."

Phoebe casts a look at the piles of papers of all colors and sizes that cover most of the table.

"Baby, why don't you keep all your notes together? A simple notepad would do."

"I don't know," he says, frowning slightly. "I started all nice and organized, with cardboards; then I decided I needed a notepad, and before I knew I was writing on whatever was at hand."

"I see," says Phoebe, reaching out and picking up a credit card receipt with a few words written on the back.

"I was at the drugstore when I had this idea," he says, shrugging, when she waves the receipt in front of his face with a smile. "I knew that if I didn't write it down right then, I'd forget it."

"I'll tell you what," says Phoebe, straightening up, "let's eat something, and I'll help you with your notes after dinner. Just don't mention it to the others," she adds, sheepishly. "I know this isn't magic, but still Leo could get upset."

"I won't," says Cole, standing up. "Thank you, baby."

"You're very welcome," she says, taking his hand as they leave the room. "Besides, I have my own selfish reasons to help you," she adds, with a mischievous glint in her eyes. "My hopes are that, by joining forces, we'll finish your agenda in time to get back to mine."

"I'll be more than glad to do whatever is on your agenda," says Cole, smiling.

"So," she says, "what's for dinner? And where's everybody, by the way?"

"Piper and Leo are at the club, and Paige had a date, so I was in charge of dinner tonight."

"I see. Have you ordered Chinese or pizza?"

"I was in the mood for some Egg Foo Yong."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Tuesday night

Phoebe and Cole are cuddled under the covers, both feeling pleasantly drowsy. The baby monitor rests on the nightstand and Ben's crib has been moved to Paige's bedroom earlier.

"It's been a while," Phoebe sighs, smiling.

"In our own bed? Indeed," says Cole, lazily running his hand up and down her naked back. "Not that I don't like doing it in the shower..."

"Yes, you definitely seemed to be enjoying yourself last time," she says, giggling.

Cole smiles and lets his hand slid to her side, tickling the sensitive spot under her ribs and making her jump in surprise and slap his chest.

"You, too, seemed to be having quite a good time," he says. Then, in a more serious manner: "But I'd rather not have to be sneaking around with you, like two horny teenagers."

"I know," she says. "It's about time Ben has his own bedroom."

"Not to mention that the manor isn't becoming any less crowded. Quite on the contrary. When Melinda's born..." -- Cole promptly stops as he sees worry spreading over her face.

"Baby," he says, "I'm not saying that we should move out again. I just..." -- he sighs, frustrated -- "Shouldn't there be an easier way?"

"Last time we took the easy way..." she starts.

"Okay, maybe not that way," he says, gently placing his fingers on her lips. "But there's gotta be **_some_** way. A way that doesn't include five grown ups and two children sharing a house with only three bedrooms. And two bathrooms, for crying out loud."

"Cole..."

"Look," he says, changing position to better look her in the eyes, "all I'm saying is, let's bring up the subject and see what your sisters and Leo have to say."

"They've already spoken their minds," she says, "when we first moved out."

"So, no talking about moving out, but about how to make the cohabitation easier for all the parts involved." Seeing that she's still uneasy, Cole adds: "And we won't take any decisions concerning this matter unless all five of us agree. One single 'nay' and the motion shall be defeated."

He touches the tip of her nose and says, smiling tentatively:

"See, I'm willing to give **_Paige_** full powers to meddle with my life, just to make sure nothing goes wrong this time."

This finally makes Phoebe crack a smile, and Cole's relieved to feel the tension leave her shoulders.

"Sorry, baby," she says, kissing his chin. "I didn't mean to sound paranoid, I just..."

"You didn't," he says, touching her face. "You just don't want to go through that again and -- believe me -- neither do I. And none of us will, I swear."

He holds her tighter, burying his face on her hair and marveling -- as always -- at how right it feels, being here with her.

"We're good," he says, "we belong here."

After a few moments he smiles and adds, sliding his hand down to the small of her back: "A little wicked, maybe, but still..." 

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Tuesday late night

"Cole?"

"Hum?"

Cole keeps his eyes closed and cuddles tighter with her, his face buried in her neck, unwilling to move, but Phoebe rolls around to face him.

"Tell me a story," she asks in her baby voice.

"You want a bedtime story?" Cole asks, raising his eyebrows in amusement.

"Sort of," she says, smiling. "I wanna hear about the time you fought a winged dragon."

"Oh, that..." -- he chuckles and passes his arm around her as she snuggles with him, resting her head on his chest -- "Well, I was fourteen and Sarsour was sixteen; and we thought that it'd be fun to mess with the head of a dragon, by taunting him and shimmering in and out around him."

"May I ask whose brilliant idea was this?" Phoebe asks, deeply amused.

"It was Sarsour's idea," says Cole, smiling. "But in his defense I must say that I wasn't hard to convince."

When she starts giggling, he promptly joins her, albeit saying:

"Hey, we were young and foolish!"

"So," Phoebe asks when she stops giggling, "what happened then?"

"Well, we did some research before going after our dragon, which was good. But you see, teenagers are teenagers, half demons or not: we didn't have much patience, so it was... quite a quick research. And that was bad. Very bad."

"Why?" Phoebe asks, and Cole smiles as he sees the glint of excitement in her eyes.

"It turned out that it's red winged dragons that can't shimmer. Black winged dragons, on the other hand, are very fast shimmerers."

"Oh my God," she whispers.

"You can say that again, baby. I taunted him for a while, got him really pissed off, then shimmered out, and imagine my surprise when I turned around and saw him standing right beside me, hissing at me."

"What did you do then?" she asks, totally caught by the story.

"What else could I do? I shimmered back to where we'd started, he followed me, and I fought him."

"And you beat him," she says, smiling.

"And I beat him," he says, smiling back at her. "But only after what felt like the longest hour of my life."

"Where was Sarsour?"

"He was shimmering around us, shrieking and doing a pretty good job confusing the dragon, although I doubt it was intentional: he was just scared to death, and I can't blame him. I thought I was going to wet my pants when I saw that dragon breathing fire on me."

"Couldn't he have gone ask for help?"

"Even if I managed to catch the dragon's attention long enough for Sarsour to shimmer out without the dragon following him, help would've been hard to find. Even grown up demons avoid crossing a winged dragon's path."

"So, what? They'd just let you die?"

"Well, my mother would've come," says Cole, and Phoebe senses the muscles of the arm that surrounds her tensing up slightly as he mentions his mother. "And I'm sure she'd have beat that dragon with much more ease than I did. But between her and a twenty-foot-high winged dragon, it's hard to say whose wrath we feared the most."

He remains silent for a moment, seeming lost in darker memories, but before Phoebe can question him he turns to her again and says, smiling:

"Anyway, the fear we felt then was enough to keep us out of trouble for some time."

"How long?" she asks.

"Two weeks to heal the bruises and burns, one week to convince ourselves that we had in fact handled it pretty well, and we're back to chasing goblins."

"You know," she says, fondling his face, "the two of you seem to have been more wicked than evil: not so different from any human teenager."

"Don't delude yourself, Phoebe," he says, his smile fading. "By the time I fought that dragon, I had already done my first killing."

"At the age of fourteen?" she asks, shocked.

"Actually, twelve," he says, somberly.

Not knowing what to say, she kisses him gently and cuddles with him. They remain silent for a moment and then she remembers the other thing Sarsour said that day that got her attention.

"Baby?" she asks, raising her face again.

"Yes?"

"While I was coming back with the stuff you needed to sign your, uh... contract, I heard Sarsour mention someone you both used to know."

"Uh, I don't recall that."

"He was saying 'so you have never again seen...', and then he stopped."

Before Cole can answer this, they both hear Paige knocking at the door.

"Phoebe? Cole?" she calls out.

"Just a second," Cole promptly says, jumping off the bed and reaching out for his robe, while Phoebe sits up, holding the covers over her naked body and watching as he walks to the door and opens it... a little too quick. Almost as if he's thankful for the interruption, she thinks.

"I hope you have enjoyed the privacy provided by our absence," she says, giving the clothes scattered on the floor a knowing look, "but it's past midnight, and I have to work tomorrow, so if you could bring Ben's crib back to your bedroom..."

"I'll get him," says Cole, already walking past her.

"If I didn't have to wake up early tomorrow, I'd be glad to baby-sit..." says Paige, seeing Phoebe bite her lower lip as Cole leaves the bedroom.

"What?" says Phoebe, turning to her, slightly startled. "No, sweetie, that's okay, I was just wondering..." -- she sighs -- "Never mind."

She gives Paige a reassuring smile and adds:

"Go have some sleep. In fact," she adds, yawning, "I should follow my own advice."

"Okay," says Paige, smiling, "good night."

"Good night," says Phoebe.

Paige leaves and Cole enters the room, carefully pushing the wheeled crib in front of him. Phoebe won't say anything, afraid to wake the baby up, and Cole knows that. And she knows he knows. So, when he raises his head from the crib and smiles at her she just smiles back at him, and when he slips under the covers she cuddles with him, taking a mental note to come back to this subject later.


	9. The Games Boys Play

Wednesday afternoon

Leo orbs in the kitchen and walks straight to the refrigerator: he's starving. Then again, that's old news: it seems to him that lately he's been either starving or throwing up. So, considering the options, starving is good.

Leo whistles happily as he prepares a nice ham sandwich: it's 3 p.m. and he hasn't been sick yet. The whole morning went by with no incidents, and unless there's an emergency call, he now has the afternoon free. He stops the hand holding the sandwich half way from his mouth: something's missing here. Mustard? No. Cheese, mayo, ketchup? None of those. Suddenly, his eyes light up: peanut butter! Leo smiles as he spreads a large amount of it over the ham: it's amazing how peanut butter suddenly became the perfect topping for virtually everything. He sits at the kitchen table and prepares to enjoy his snack.

Just then, Cole enters the kitchen, holding a bunch of papers in one hand and a mug in the other.

"Hey," he says, not giving Leo a second look as he heads to the coffeepot.

"Hey," says Leo, glancing at the concerned look at the other man's face and at the papers he's holding.

While Cole pours himself more coffee, Leo debates with himself about asking him what's wrong. Cole's clearly been working on Sarsour's case, and Leo doesn't feel like spoiling such a pleasant day by meddling with demonic affairs. The Elders have been asking lots of questions lately. No pressure, just questions; still, he finds this lack of directions quite unsettling. In fact, he thinks, frowning slightly, even when Cole was still half demon, the Elders seemed to be more interested in asking questions about him than in expressing their position concerning his presence at the manor and his relationship with Phoebe.

When Cole drops the papers on the kitchen's table and leans against the counter, drinking his coffee with a dejected expression, Leo lowers his eyes to his sandwich, making sure to avoid eye contact.

"He doesn't seem to be in much of a talkative mood, anyway," he thinks, in an attempt to convince himself.

The two men remain silent, oblivious to each other's presence. Leo chews his sandwich, pensively. Last night, Piper told him of how she's been covering for Cole and baby-sitting while he works on the case. Strictly speaking, that's a violation of the terms set by the Elders, even if she hasn't used any magic, but he didn't have the heart to say that. Now, looking at the neatly printed notes resting on the kitchen's table, Leo has no illusions about who did it: Cole couldn't be this organized even if his own life depended on it. Two witches out of three, he thinks, that can't be good.

Cole finishes his coffee and looks from the empty mug to the papers that await him, then back to the mug. When he reaches out for the coffeepot again, Leo sighs and asks:

"All right, what's the matter?"

"This case," says Cole. Leo gives him an interrogative look and he explains: "It's too damn weak."

"Why don't you take a short break?" Leo asks. "If you've hit some kind of lawyer's block..."

"The trial is in less than twenty four hours," says Cole. "I should be reviewing my closing statement by now, not struggling to remember the details of trolls' laws."

He sighs heavily, turns back to the coffeepot but, instead of refilling, places the mug beside it and turns back to Leo.

"You know, if I could go to the village and take a look at some legal compendiums..."

"WHAT?" Leo exclaims, flabbergasted. "I am NOT orbing you there!" he says, standing up.

"Okay, sorry," says Cole, raising his hands defensively. "Forget I said that, I just..."

"No." says Leo, sharply.

"Fine," Cole sighs. "Sorry."

He hesitates, then points at the remains of the sandwich Leo has dropped on the table and says:

"Come on, finish your sandwich."

As Leo sits again, Cole reaches for the coffeepot again. They remain silent for a moment, until Cole says:

"Dismemberment."

"What?" says Leo, confused.

"That's how trolls execute criminals," says Cole, keeping his eyes on his mug. "They dismember them. They tie each of the convict's arms and legs to one horse and..."

"Stop it," says Leo, curtly. He eats the last bite of his sandwich and adds, already standing up: "One, this is not gonna work; and two, it's a robbery, for crying out loud: who would convict someone to death because of a robbery?"

"On a trolls' court there are only two possible verdicts: non guilty and convicted to death," says Cole.

Leo flinches, but still says, sternly:

"I'm sorry to hear that."

When he leaves the room without another word, Cole sighs, sits at the kitchen table, rests his mug on it and picks up his notes again.

Less than five minutes have passed when Leo enters the kitchen again, heads to the refrigerator and pours himself some water. While he's putting the bottle back inside the refrigerator, he says, without looking at Cole:

"Besides, I may be home, but I'm on call: I couldn't possibly stay out of reach for the rest of the afternoon."

"The Elders could reach you there just as much as they reach you here," Cole assures him, keeping his eyes on the papers so that Leo won't see the glint of hope on them.

Instead of answering, though, Leo starts to leave the room with his glass of water. He stops at the doorway, with his back turned to Cole, hesitates for a few seconds and then turns back to him.

"Considering you did find a way to go there, what exactly would you do?" he finally asks.

"Just go to the library and update my knowledge of the trolls' laws," Cole quickly says. "And maybe stop by at the prison to talk to Sarsour."

Leo brings the glass to his lips, and starts to drink his water ever so slowly, all the time keeping his eyes down. Finally, he puts the empty glass on the table, and asks, out of the blue:

"Where's Ben?"

"Victor called earlier," says Cole, "he wanted to spend some time with Ben, and since Piper had the afternoon free, she took him to Victor's place. She said they'd be home by six."

"I see," says Leo. He remains silent for a while, and Cole watches him tensely. Finally, Leo holds out his hand and says: "You have one hour and not one second more."

Cole jumps to his feet and shakes the hand Leo's offering, and the Whitelighter orbs them to the trolls' village.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Watch out, you two!" grunts a female troll, as Leo and Cole orb in right beside her, almost causing her to drop the basket she's carrying.

The two men quickly move aside as she walks past them. They feel oddly small and uncomfortably fragile, surrounded by trolls, ogres and one or two cyclops. Fortunately, everyone seems to be minding their own business and don't pay much attention to the two newcomers; still, Cole and Leo lose no time to leave the crowded Market Square and head towards the library.

"Not very impressive," says Leo, looking at the small building that's little more than a hut.

"Do any of those guys look like the intellectual type to you?" says Cole, walking past him and opening the door.

Once inside the library, Leo watches the dusty books with some curiosity while Cole talks to the librarian, a wrinkled old female that seems to be able to break any of them in two with her bare hands. After a few minutes, Cole joins him, holding a large book and a few comics that he shoves in his hand, saying:

"Here, to pass time."

Leo gives the pictures on the cover a suspicious look, then shrugs and goes sit in front of Cole at the only available table.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"I think those comics are gonna give me nightmares for the next two weeks," says Leo, as they cross the Market Square again forty minutes later, having asked directions to the prison.

"It could've been worse," says Cole. "I could've given you an issue of PlayTroll."

"Is there such a thing?" Leo asks, horrified.

"No," says Cole, chuckling, "but the look on your face when I said that was priceless."

Leo rolls his eyes, but before he can make a smart retort, Cole stops short, looking at a large building on their left.

"What?" says Leo, following his stare.

"That's the granary," says Cole. "Come on, I wanna take a look at the place before I talk to Sarsour," he says, already walking quickly in that direction.

Leo increases his pace to catch up with Cole as the other man approaches the granary. The doors are closed, and there's a big troll sitting in front of them. When he notices their presence, he gives them a dirty look and grunts:

"The granary is closed."

"I see," says Cole. "Listen, I'm the defendant's attorney on the trial concerning the robbery, and I'd like to take a look at the crime scene."

"It's closed."

"Yes, but if you just tell me whose permission I should ask..."

"No visitors!" groans the troll, standing up and looking down at the two men.

"Okay," says Cole, quickly taking a step back and pulling Leo by his arm. "Okay. We're leaving."

"You, too, have a nice day." he grunts as they are at a safe distant.

"Why did you want to see the granary?" Leo asks, as they walk away.

"Just a hunch," says Cole. "But God knows I need one."

"Are things that bad?"

"You'll bet," Cole sighs.

Leo walks by his side without a word for a while, immerse in his own thoughts. Then he sighs heavily and says:

"Oh, what the hell!..."

Before Cole can react, he grabs his shoulder and orbs them both to the interior of the granary. Once Cole understands what Leo has just done, he looks at him in shocked surprise and whispers:

"Have you lost your mind?"

"What?" Leo retorts in the same tone. "We have already broken the rules big time: my situation can't get any worse."

"Well, mine can! This is not just breaking the rules; this is trespassing! If they catch us here they won't even bother to judge us, you maniac!"

"Should I orb us out?" Leo asks, impatient.

Cole looks nervously around, and says:

"No. As long we're here, I might as well take a look around."

He starts to walk cautiously around the granary, with Leo on his heels. The two men walk in silence to the counter that separates the stock area from the visitors area, and back to the stock area. They turn corners and cross doorways, coming in and out of the mostly empty rooms, rooms that at this time of the year should be filled with bags of all kinds of grains. After some time, Leo starts to get bored with what would seem like mere wandering around if it wasn't for Cole's serious expression.

"One thing I don't understand," he says, watching as Cole goes on tiptoes to see what's on a shelf, "is why Sarsour tried to run away from the guards, instead of simply shimmering out."

"They'd have tracked his shimmer," says Cole, checking the lock of a door that seems to lead outside.

"How do they..."

"Just a second," says Cole, holding his hand up.

Leo shrugs and starts to walk in the opposite direction, to examine the contents of a big box in the corner of the room. He looks at the roots inside the box without much interest, and is about to go back to where Cole is when he hears something that makes his heart miss a beat: a door has been opened with a slam, and heavy steps indicate that at least two trolls have entered the granary. Leo takes one step towards Cole, intending to orb them out of here, but Cole stares intensely at him and waves his head. Although Leo has never heard of tracking orbs, he chooses to trust Cole's judgement and stay where he is, feeling his heart pounding furiously inside his chest, strong enough for him to wonder if the trolls won't be able to hear his heartbeats easier than they'd hear the chiming of his orb.

They hear the trolls -- _dear God, there must be at least four of them!_ -- talking to each other as they walk around the granary. It's hard to tell, but Leo has the sinking feeling that they're coming right in their direction. His mind works frantically, trying to figure a way out of this. _I shouldn't be here in the first place, none of us should. Damn it, Cole, why did I listen to you? Phoebe's gonna freak out when she learns I brought you here. And what in the name of God could trolls do to a Whitelighter? They can't kill me. Unless, of course, the Elders choose this particular moment to clip my wings, as a punishment for having broken the rules in spades. Even if they don't, if the trolls can follow my orb, how can I go back to the manor, with them on my heels? Or to anywhere else, for all that matters?_

He looks at Cole again, and this one holds up his hand and places one finger on his lips, silently urging him to stay quiet. The only light comes from the cracks on the walls, but even at the half-light Leo can see the apprehension spread all over Cole's face. Leo feels a drop of cold sweat running down his back as the voices become closer, close enough for him to understand some of the words: _somewhere here... when I put my hands on... closer... I'm sure it's..._ None of this does much to reassure him, and he jumps in surprise and almost shrieks when the doors are opened again and someone else shouts from outside:

"I found it! It had fallen behind those fruit boxes!"

The voices start to go away then, and when the doors are closed behind them Leo leans against the wall, feeling dizzy with relief. His heartbeats haven't come back to normal yet when he feels Cole's hand grab his arm forcefully, and the other man grunts:

"Get me the hell out of here."

Leo wastes no time, and seconds later they're sitting on a stone bank across the Market Square. He tries to say something, but from his mouth only comes out a hoarse croak.

"You're a freaking psycho," says Cole, glaring at him. Then, without a warning, he starts to laugh, and Leo soon joins him. They sit here for a good ten minutes, laughing hysterically, while the passers-by cast them suspicious looks. Finally, Cole says, wiping the tears away from his eyes:

"You're more of a menace as an ally than you're as an enemy."

"Shut up," says Leo, in between chuckles. "Come on," he says, slapping Cole's shoulder and standing up, "you wanted to see Sarsour before we went back, didn't you?"

"Sure," says Cole, standing up, too.

As they walk towards the prison, he says:

"Despite of all the mess, I think I actually found something I can use there." Leo gives him an inquisitive look, but he waves his head: "I don't wanna jinx it."

When they're at the prison's door, Leo stops short as a thought strikes him.

"Now, wait a minute!" he says, grabbing Cole's shoulder and forcing him to stop, too. "If you knew you hadn't the means to come here by yourself today, how did you intend to come for the trial?"

"I didn't plan on asking you to orb me here for the trial, if that's what you're thinking," says Cole, "The prosecutor will bring me here tomorrow."

"Ugh!" says Leo, grimacing at the idea of hitchhiking with a troll.

"You took the words right out of my mouth," says Cole, walking through the door.

Leo follows him, and they soon find themselves standing before a troll sitting behind a desk and holding a huge cudgel. When Cole cautiously explains why they're here, never taking his eyes of the cudgel, the troll says, curtly:

"Only three visitors at a time."

Cole and Leo exchange a confused look. They know trolls aren't famous by their math skills, but how hard it is to count up to two? Or to know that two is less than three? Before they can figure out what to say, though, the door behind the guard is opened and two elves come from the next room.

"Now you enter," grunts the troll, barely glancing at the elves.

The elves watch Cole and Leo with great curiosity. They talk to each other in a strange, musical language, and then one of them takes one step forward and asks:

"Is one of you Sarsour's attorney?"

"I am," says Cole.

"I'm Tadrien," says the elf, smiling and holding out his hand. "I'll be testifying at my cousin's trial, tomorrow."

"I'm glad to hear that," says Cole, shaking Tadrien's hand and smiling back at him.

The other elf, a beautiful female whose blond hair goes down to her waist, approaches them and says something that Cole and Leo can't understand.

"My sister," -- Tadrien puts one arm around her shoulders -- "and I really appreciate what you're doing for our cousin." He becomes very serious when he adds: "Elves don't forget. And we pay our dues."

"There's no due here," says Cole. "Sarsour is a friend of mine, and I'm glad to help."

"Elves don't forget," Tadrien repeats. Then he adds: "You must be here to talk to Sarsour. We shall not delay you."

After they've shaken hands and said good-bye, the two elves leave the prison, and Cole and Leo walk through the door and go see Sarsour.

* * *

_[Author's note: I'm sorry, guys, but I won't let you watch this conversation; I have to save some surprises for the trial.]_

* * *

It's almost 5 p.m. when Cole and Leo finally orb back home. Leo lets go of Cole's arm, and the two men look at each other, smiling.

"Thank you," says Cole.

"You're welcome. It was quite an enlightening experience," says Leo, smirking.

Then he looks up, listening, and his smile vanishes.

"What?" says Cole, apprehensively.

"They're calling."

The two men exchange a nervous look, then Leo says, trying to sound nonchalant:

"It can be just a coincidence."

"Should I tell Piper you'll be late for dinner?" Cole asks.

Leo glances at the grandfather's clock and says:

"It won't be necessary... I guess." -- he shudders as the Elders call again -- "I'd better go see what they want before they get impatient."

"Okay," says Cole. He watches as Leo orbs out with a sinking feeling. For a few moments he just stands in the middle of the sunroom, pensive. Then he sighs and goes work at the information he brought from the trolls' village, hoping Leo will come back before Piper comes back from her father's apartment.


	10. Clearing Some Things Up... Keeping Other...

Note: Becca, the sequel to this story will be an entirely P/C story, okay? But first, you'll have to bear with the last chapters of this one. Cheer up, it won't take long: the trial will be on Thursday afternoon! ;-)

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Wednesday evening

Piper, Phoebe and Paige are chatting in the kitchen when Cole enters with Ben in his arms.

"Hey, look who's here!" says Phoebe, reaching out for her son. When Cole puts the baby in her arms, she gives him several sound kisses that make him giggle.

Piper raises her head from the vegetables she's been slicing and says, smiling:

"You should have seen dad sitting on the floor with him, playing peek-a-boo. Can you believe he actually called in sick to spend the afternoon with Ben?"

"Why?" Phoebe asks, while reaching out for the shells of the boiled eggs she was peeling and pushing them across the table towards Paige, out of Ben's reach. "I mean, it's not like he can't come over on the weekends to see him."

"He says that on weekends, with all of us around, there's too much competition." says Piper, giggling.

"That's because he's so irresistible," says Phoebe, taking one of Ben's chubby hands in hers and kissing it. "Aren't you, sweetie?"

Until now, Cole was unusually quiet, but he finally turns to Piper and asks, as nonchalantly as possible:

"Piper, has Leo come home yet?"

"You mean, since fifteen minutes ago, when you last asked me the same question? No," says Piper giving him a curious look. "This is the fourth time you ask me this, Cole. Is something wrong?"

"No," he says, averting her eyes as he sits by Phoebe's side and reaches out for one of the discarded eggshells.

While Cole fumbles with the eggshell, breaking tiny pieces out of it, Phoebe and Piper exchange a worried look across the table. Then, Phoebe takes the eggshell from Cole, wiping the pieces away before Ben grabs them.

"Cole, what happened this afternoon?" she asks.

"Hum, we did something today... that maybe we shouldn't have done," says Cole. Piper arches her eyebrows inquisitively, and he adds, shrugging: "But it seemed to be such a good idea then."

"We?" says Phoebe. "Like in, you and Leo?"

"Yes," says Cole, glancing at Piper. "But it was my idea."

Piper places the knife on the table, next to the sliced vegetables, feeling cold winged butterflies swirling around in her stomach.

"What was your idea?" she asks, in a low, controlled voice.

"To go to the trolls' village to do some research."

"To the trolls' village?" Phoebe asks, puzzled. "But, baby, how did you... Oh!" -- her eyes grow big as the implications of Cole's words sink in.

"Did Leo **_orb_** you there?" Piper asks, alarmed. "Mr. 'no magic involved'?"

"Were you out of your minds?" Paige asks, shocked.

"I, uh... we just..."

"What happened then?" Piper asks, afraid to hear the answer.

"The Elders summoned him," says Cole. He winces at the way Piper closes her eyes and rubs her forehead. "I'm sorry, I didn't think that..."

"You didn't think. Period," snaps Piper, cutting him. "Then again, neither did Leo. I can't believe he let you talk him into this!"

"Cole, you have to understand that Leo's position is much more delicate than ours," says Phoebe. "He can't afford breaking the rules the way we do."

Cole opens his mouth, then thinks again and closes it, afraid that anything he says will only make things worse.

Piper absently grabs one of the carrots she was dicing and starts to chew it nervously.

"Maybe it was just a coincidence," she says, in an attempt to reassure herself, "maybe they wanted to talk with him about something else."

"Sure," says Phoebe, reaching out and fondling her sister's hand. "After all, he has been away for longer than that later, hasn't he?"

"Uh-hu," says Piper. "Besides, they can't just keep him there indefinitely, right? After all, he's not just our Whitelighter; he's my husband. They can't take my husband away. Right?"

"Right," says Paige, glaring at Cole. "He's probably on his way back home now."

As if on key, Leo orbs in. Piper immediately stands up and holds him, saying:

"Honey, are you okay?"

"I'm fine, honey, don't worry," he says, putting his arm around her shoulders and kissing her forehead. In fact, he looks more bewildered than upset and, after reassuring his wife, he turns to Cole, saying: "I guess you've already told them."

"Yes," says Cole. "Were the Elders mad?"

Leo gives him an odd look before answering.

"Well, they scolded me. But..." He frowns, thinks for a while and says: "You know when Ben tries to grab the remote? And you have to tell him 'no no no', not because it's a bad thing, but because he's too young to learn how to use it?"

"Uh, yes," says Cole, giving him a puzzled look.

"It's hard to explain," says Leo, "but I have this feeling that the Elders were scolding me mostly because they had to do so. They weren't all that mad, even if they tried to sound like they were."

"Are you sure about that, honey?" Piper asks, intrigued.

"I've seen them mad before, Piper," Leo says, with a half smile. "If they were as mad as they sounded, they wouldn't have let me get away with this so easily, believe me."

He turns to Cole again and says:

"You won't even have to hitchhike with the prosecutor, if you don't want to. I've got permission to orb you to the trolls' village for the trial."

"Now, that's a twist," says Piper, bewildered.

"Can I go, too?" Phoebe suddenly asks.

"Uh, I guess," says Leo, raising his eyebrows. "But shouldn't you be at work?"

"I'll speed things up in the morning," she says, confidently. "If I get my work done by noon, I'm sure I can take the afternoon off."

"Well, I can orb the two of you," says Leo.

"Can you make it three?" Piper asks.

Leo looks at her, surprised; then, he turns to Cole and asks:

"Would that be a problem?"

"Not for me," says Cole, shrugging.

"Then, I guess it's okay. Uh, Paige?" -- Leo turns to the youngest Halliwell, with an interrogative look.

"I have to work," she says, dryly.

In an attempt to fill the awkward silence that follows, Phoebe says:

"You know, I'm impressed with this sudden change of heart. It's not like the Elders to be that tolerant."

"Maybe they decided to go easy on Leo because of his 'delicate condition'," says Cole, whose penitent disposition flew out the window at the moment he learned that there'd be no consequences for Leo.

"Don't push it," whispers Phoebe, eyeing him. "I'm not done with you yet."

This is what it takes to silence Cole up; a quick look at Piper's face tells Leo that he, too, has something coming to him later.

"I'm glad you find it amusing," Paige grunts, standing up with an annoyed expression. The others look at her and she adds, shrugging: "I have a dinner date." -- she turns to Piper -- "Come on, I had already told you I wouldn't be home for dinner."

After she leaves, Phoebe says:

"I'd better go talk to her."

"Don't," says Cole, standing up. "I will."

Phoebe gives him a surprised look, and he says, shrugging:

"The worst thing that can happen is that she'll yell at me, and at least she'll be yelling at the person she's really mad at." He hesitates, then asks: "She hasn't developed any lethal power recently, right?"

"No," says Piper, "but she can get really loud."

"Are you sure about this?" Phoebe asks, intrigued.

"Just go rescue me if I don't come back in twenty minutes, okay?" Cole asks, half seriously.

After he leaves the kitchen, Phoebe, Piper and Leo exchange doubtful looks. Finally, Piper says, shrugging:

"It can't hurt. Well, unless Paige throws something on him..."

"I don't... ugh!" says Phoebe, grimacing.

"What?" says Piper.

"Diaper emergency," says Phoebe, standing up. "Excuse us," she adds, leaving the kitchen with Ben.

Piper watches her leave, then turns to Leo, crossing her arms in front of her chest and cocking her head to the side.

"Well...?"

"I know what you're gonna say, and..." Leo starts to say, but Piper holds up her hand to silence him up.

"Shush," she says. "I'll give you a piece of my mind later. Right now, what I'm asking you is, what else happened up there?"

"You know, it's a good thing I'm not cheating on you," he says, smirking. "You can read me like a book."

"Yeah, yeah..." she says, smiling. "Come on, hubby, spill it out."

"The usual," says Leo, casting a quick look towards the door. Then he gets serious again and says, lowering his voice: "They're up to something, but they won't tell me what it is."

"Are they still asking questions about Cole?" Piper asks, in the same tone.

"All the time," says Leo, frowning. "You know, if they just told me what they want to know, maybe I could help. But they don't."

"They've been like this for a lot of time now, Leo," says Piper. "Shouldn't we tell Phoebe and Cole?"

"No," says Leo, firmly. "For a start, I shouldn't even be telling this to you. If we brought Phoebe and Cole into this, we might screw up whatever it is that the Elders have planned, and even if all this mystery unsettles me, I still trust that they mean no harm to Cole. I mean, they let me save him when the Source was vanquished: why would they have done that if they intended to do something against him later?"

"I don't know," Piper sighs. "It's just that secrets don't agree with this family. They have a way of coming between us in the worst possible moments."

"Come here," says Leo, pulling her towards him. He holds her and gently fondles her hair, saying: "Just give me some more time: I'll try to figure out what's going on."

Piper rests her head on his chest, cuddling with him, and fervently hoping that he's right.


	11. Family Affairs

Note: Sorry, guys, you know that it usually doesn't take that long for me to update, but I was out of town for the holiday (last Thursday was a holiday in Brazil).

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Paige takes a silk blouse from the closet and throws it angrily on her bed. _What's wrong with them? Why this need to play with fire?_ A miniskirt lands atop of the blouse. _Isn't that enough that evil is constantly chasing us, teasing, enticing? Do we have to go after it, too?_

A knock on the door interrupts the course of her thoughts, startling her; Paige spins around and is deeply surprised to see Cole standing at the door. She would've expected Piper, or Phoebe. Leo, maybe. But Cole? She frowns and gives him an inquisitive look.

For a moment, Cole just stands there, with his hands in his pockets, looking as uncomfortable as one could possibly be, until Paige sighs heavily and says, with a note of impatience:

"Yes, Cole?"

"Look," he says, "about the trial..."

"Cole," she says, cutting him short, "I have a date in less than one hour, I really don't have the time to talk about that now."

As he doesn't show any signs of leaving, she rolls her eyes and points at the corridor behind him, saying:

"So, would you please...?"

Cole follows her gesture, chews his lower lip for a moment and actually considers dropping the subject. But instead he clears his throat and turns to her again:

"Listen, Paige, I know you feel that we've been through this before, but..."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she says, sharply, while turning her attention back to her clothes, but the way she stiffens tells Cole that he's just touched an exposed nerve.

"When I started working with demons again," he pursues, gently, "you were the only who noticed it right away. If the others had listened to you then, things might have turned out differently."

Without a word, Paige slowly turns around and faces him, surprised by his insight.

"I gave you one hell of a time back then," Cole adds.

"Well, it wasn't really you," she says, in a low voice. "It was the Source."

Cole shifts his weight from one foot to the other, feeling uneasy. He and Paige were never very fond of each other: if on one side haunting her was part of the Source's plans, on the other Cole can't help but think that he may have enjoyed seeing her squirm.

"Come on in," she says, cutting off his musings.

Cole gives her an uncertain look, then takes a shy step in. Paige sits on the edge of her bed, and motions him to sit on a chair.

"Listen," she says, "when you and Phoebe came back from the Underworld we all agreed to leave the past behind and start fresh. You don't need to go over this again: it's all in the past."

"I know," says Cole. "But you see, fresh start or not, Leo and I have talked about that. And, well," -- he shrugs -- "Piper and I spend a lot of time alone in this house, it's not like we could avoid the subject forever: eventually we had to work it out, too."

Cole takes a deep breath and bursts out:

"I never apologized to you."

"Do you want to?" she asks, all the more surprised.

"I do," he says. "I'm sorry, Paige," he adds and, even if the words don't exactly roll of his tongue, they sound sincere.

"Apologies accepted," Paige says, softly.

The remain silent for a while, both feeling sort of awkward, until she says:

"But that doesn't mean I'll support this weird idea of yours." -- Cole opens his mouth, but she holds up her hand -- "No, Cole, listen: it was sweet of you to try and work things out; don't think that I don't appreciate it. I'm not very good at this 'all in the past' thing, and it means a lot that you wanna make up. But, you see, if I had been more emphatic and stood up for my opinion back then, maybe we could've stopped you before it was too late. So, don't ask me to support your meddling with demonic affairs, cause I won't, old friend or not."

Realizing that her words have sounded harsher than she intended, Paige softens her voice before continuing:

"I'm doing this for your sake, too, and I'll be glad when you guys come back from trollville tomorrow, all safe and sound, but, honestly, I wish none of you were going there at the first place."

She glances at her watch and adds, almost unwillingly:

"Now, I'm sorry, but I **_really_** need to go and take a shower if I am to be ready when my date arrives."

She stands up, and Cole does the same. Paige hesitates, then takes one step forward and kisses him lightly on the cheek before taking the robe that was lying on the bed and leaving the room before he has a chance to say anything. After she's gone, Cole still stands in the middle of the room, bewildered, until he hears Phoebe's voice coming from the door.

"So," she says, "how was it?"

Cole looks at her, standing at the doorway with Ben in her arms.

"Hum, okay," he says, walking towards them. "I mean, it could've been better, but it could've been worse, too."

He takes Ben from Phoebe's arms, and the baby nestles in his father's arms, cooing happily. Cole smiles and kisses the top of Ben's head; then he says, as he and Phoebe walk out of the room:

"This is odd."

"What?" she asks.

"Family."

"Good odd or bad odd?" Phoebe asks, smirking.

Cole hesitates briefly and says, looking puzzled even as he smiles back at her:

"Good, I guess." He thinks a little more and adds: "But still odd." 


	12. Off to the Court We Go

Note: It's trial day, at last! I hope you find it worth waiting for.

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Thursday afternoon

"I said 2 p.m.," says Cole, pacing back and forth in the sunroom. "We should already be there by now. Where's he?"

Phoebe and Piper exchange an uncertain look, but say nothing. Phoebe is sitting on a wicker chair with Ben in her arms: under different circumstances, the sight of Ben following his father's incessant pacing with intrigued eyes would amuse her, but right now she's starting to get worried with Leo's failure to show up and orb them to the trolls' village.

"He'll be here, Cole," says Piper, stopping her own pacing and pulling another chair to sit next to Phoebe. "Something must have come up."

"I'm sure it did, Piper," says Cole, "but the judge won't want to hear about that. If I don't show up for the trial, Sarsour will be as good as dead."

Piper starts to say something, but then they see the swirling blue lights appearing next to Cole, and she and Phoebe promptly stand up. Much to their surprise, though, when the lights settle down they see Paige, not Leo, standing there and looking at them in no less bewilderment.

"You're still here," says Paige.

"So it seems," says Cole, bitterly.

"Hum, what happened?" Paige asks, turning to Piper.

"Apparently Leo had a situation," says Piper, cautiously.

"Oh." Paige bites her lower lip, hesitantly, then asks: "Do you think I could, uh... orb you there?"

Paige's white skin turns crimson as the others give her very surprised looks.

"I told my boss I wasn't feeling well," she says, shrugging. "I intended to call out for Leo from here, but since you're all still here, and he seems to be busy somewhere else... Do you think I'd be able to orb you to the trolls' village?"

"Well, I don't know," says Cole. "Leo knew where the trolls' village was. Do you?"

Just then, Leo orbs in.

"I'm sorry," he says, "I'll explain it on the way, let's just..." -- he spots Paige and gives her a surprised look.

Paige shrugs, embarrassed, but before Leo can question her, Cole puts his hand on his shoulder, saying:

"She can tell her story on the way, too; can we **_please_** go?"

"Right," says Leo, putting his arm around Piper's waist and holding Cole's wrist. "Paige, can you follow me?" Paige nods in accordance and he adds: "Good; take Phoebe and Ben with you."

Paige takes Phoebe's hand and soon they all disappear in a twist of blue lights.

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Cole draws slow, deep breaths, hoping he can steady his heartbeat before it's time to begin his opening speech. When Leo orbed him and Piper to the trolls' village, he waited long enough to be sure Paige had orbed Phoebe and Ben safely, and left them behind, rushing up the stone steps that lead to the courtroom. Once inside, he walked quickly to where Sarsour was, feeling a pang of guilt as he saw the intense relief in his friend's eyes as this one saw him.

"Sorry," he whispered, already walking past Sarsour and heading towards the judge, an old troll with a sour face framed by grayish hair.

"Cole Turner, representing the defendant, your honor," he said, in a voice that he expected showed none of his tension.

"It was about time," grunted the judge, barely looking at him.

Now, sitting by Sarsour side and watching as the prosecutor stands up and walks heavily to the middle of the room, Cole turns around and glances a look at his family, sitting three seats behind. They all look very small, sitting on that seat made to accommodate trolls. Leo and Paige can barely touch the ground with their feet, while Piper and Phoebe have their legs hanging freely over the edge of the seat. Phoebe's eyes meet his and she smiles, and Cole winks at her before turning towards the prosecutor again, as this one stops before the jury. All other thoughts are swept from Cole's mind, and he leans forward and watches as the prosecutor starts his opening speech.

"Our food has been stolen," he says. "The fruit of our hard work, stolen right under our noses!"

Cole watches apprehensively as a wave of rage passes through the audience and the jury. Even the judge frowns as the prosecutor reminds them of the reason for this trial.

"An offense like this cannot remain unpunished," proceeds the prosecutor. "We found and captured the spy that helped the thieves..."

"Objection!" says Cole, jumping to his feet. Ignoring the dirty look the prosecutor addresses him, he proceeds: "Your honor, my client has declared himself not guilty. The jury, not the prosecutor, is supposed to determine whether he's telling the truth or not."

"Sustained," says the judge, with obvious unwillingness, and Cole sits back by Sarsour's side.

"The thieves had the help of a spy," proceeds the prosecutor. Cole considers raising an objection again, since this point hasn't been proven; then again, he doubts the judge will sustain many of his objections, so he chooses to save his shots. "We have reasons to believe that the defendant," the prosecutor proceeds, pointing at Sarsour, who winces at the rancorous looks the audience addresses him, "is this spy, and I'm here to prove it. And when I do, our people will be avenged."

With this, the prosecutor goes back to his chair, and gives Cole a defiant look, a look that Cole ignores the best he can as he stands up and goes take the place the troll has just left empty in the middle of the room.

"The fruit of months of hard work has been stolen from you," he says, gravely. "As the prosecutor said, this was a grave offense, one that mustn't remain unpunished." One juror raises his eyebrows, and two of them give Cole slightly intrigued looks. _Shouldn't the human be **defending** his client?_ Seeing that he's caught their attention, Cole proceeds: "But your rage shouldn't be wasted on someone other than the ones responsible for your loss. If my client had been the spy the prosecution alleges he is, I'd be the first one to support your wish to crush him. I'm here to prove he's not and, by doing so, to allow you to go after the real criminals, the ones upon which your much-justified wrath should fall. If you don't -- if you punish the wrong person..."

Cole takes one step towards the jury, and lowers his voice slightly, as if he is telling them a secret. The jurors seem to be hypnotized by his voice, and two of them actually lean forward to better listen to him.

"That'll mean you've left the real thieves get away with this. You'll have lost your grains, my client will have lost his life... and the thieves will have won."

Cole stands still for a moment, watching as the meaning of his words sink in, then he thanks the jurors for their attention and goes back to his seat.

As he sits by Sarsour's side, Cole is barely aware of the murmur running through the crowd as the trolls try to adjust to the idea that killing the demon sitting on the defendant's seat won't necessarily be the best solution. As he feels the familiar wave of adrenaline starting to course through his body, the one he hasn't felt in months, he remembers why he used to love this game, why he still does. Cole smiles mildly as the prosecutor stands up to call the first prosecution witness: it's show time.


	13. The Prosecution Witnesses

Note 1: Yay! We're back in business! :-))))) Now, here they come: the prosecution witnesses.

Note 2: You know, I really missed writing for you guys. It's not the same without the reviews.

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The prosecutor gives Cole a suspicious look and says:

"The prosecution calls Chalky the Furrier."

A stocky, bald troll, with a curly dark beard and thick eyebrows stands up and goes take the witness chair. After the usual questions about his name and occupation, the prosecutor asks him:

"Have you ever seen the defendant before?"

"Yes," says Chalky, eyeing Sarsour, "at the Market Square. Lots of times."

"Near the granary?"

"Yes."

"Was he selling anything at the Market Square?" the prosecutor asks, glancing at Cole.

"No," says Chalky.

"Was he buying anything?" -- the prosecutor is slowly pacing back and forth before the witness chair.

"No."

"Trading, bargaining, signing a contract?" -- once again he glances in Cole's direction.

"No."

Cole shifts position, annoyed, but says nothing. The prosecutor is clearly daring him to raise another objection. Actually, he could raise one: strictly speaking, the prosecutor should be asking if Chalky **_has seen_** Sarsour do those things. Still, Cole refrains from saying anything and saves his comments for the re-examination, afraid that he'll lose any sympathy his opening speech may have earned him from the jurors if he keeps interrupting the prosecutor, who -- unlike him -- is one of them.

The prosecutor casts a defiant look at Cole and asks his final question:

"What was the defendant doing at the Market Square?"

"Just wandering around and asking questions," states Chalky.

"No further questions," says the prosecutor, going back to his seat.

Cole stands up and walks towards the witness; even though he refuses to make eye contact with the prosecutor, he can almost feel his stare.

"So," he says to Chalky, "you're a furrier."

"Objection!" says the prosecutor. "The question has been already asked and answered."

Cole turns on his heels, irritated, and is all the more surprised when the judge says, frowning at him:

"Sustained. You should pay more attention to the inquiry, counsel."

"It wasn't a qu..." Cole starts, but then he thinks again. The prosecutor is trying to make him lose his composure; if he does, Sarsour will be doomed. So he takes a deep breath and turns to the judge again: he has to keep in mind that this court is nothing like a human court. They're not here to prove anything beyond reasonable doubt; in fact, reason has little to do with it. Each attorney will tell his story the best he can, and do his best to make sure the other can't tell his. Each one will try to charm the jurors, while sabotaging the other's attempts to do the same.

With great effort he manages to keep a straight face as he says:

"I'm sorry, Your Honor. It won't happen again."

Cole turns back to Chalky, purposefully ignoring the amused look in his eyes, and says:

"I've heard you're one of the best in your business." -- this is a blatant lie, but hopefully no one will know -- "You must have lots of customers."

"As a matter of fact, I do," Chalky says, proudly.

"Do you have an assistant? Anyone that helps you with the customers?"

"No."

"So, you deal with all your customers personally?" says Cole, looking very impressed.

"Yes, I do. All of them," Chalky states.

"I see," says Cole. "It seems like a handful to me, even for a talented furrier like you. You don't have much time to yourself while you're at the Market Square, do you?"

"Not much," says Chalky, shrugging. "I work hard."

"So," Cole proceeds, still looking as nonchalant as possible, "when you said that the defendant did nothing at the Market Square but wander around and ask questions, I assume you were referring only to what you could see during your scarce free time. Am I correct?"

"Hum!" grunted the troll, giving him a dirty look. "Yes."

"Thanks, Chalky," says Cole, politely. "No further questions, Your Honor," he adds, addressing the judge.

Fortunately to Cole, the next witness isn't a troll: Garak the Redhead is a muscular ogre with arms as thick as a strong man's thigh. His testimony is supposed to reinforce Chalky's, but he doesn't seem to care much for the results of this trial, so if on one hand he allows the prosecutor to conduct him the same way he did with Chalky, on the other hand he doesn't make any effort to fight Cole as this one repeats his own routine, thus making sure those two testimonies don't contradict Sarsour's claim that he had a perfectly good reason to be at the Market Square.

After Garak is dismissed, the prosecution calls Moraine. Having being summoned as a prosecution witness, he couldn't also be summoned by the defense, so Cole could only summon Cliff as a defense witness, and will have to settle with the cross examination for Moraine. He watches as the prosecutor inquires Moraine about the safety measures used at the granary, showing the jury that the thieves wouldn't have been able to enter without the help of a spy. Cole raises no objections, as the information Moraine is giving fits in perfectly in his own strategy, only checking the notes he took while inside the granary every now and then, to make sure Moraine's testimony is accurate.

When the prosecutor tells the judge he's done with the witness, Cole stands up and walks towards the witness chair. He skips the part about the granary functioning and leaves his questions about this matter to Cliff. There's no point in letting the prosecution know the defense's strategy now; in fact, the later the prosecutor learns about his intentions, the better for him.

Cole stops in front of Cliff, puts his hands in his pockets and asks:

"Cliff, were you on duty when the defendant was arrested?"

"No," says Cliff, eyeing him suspiciously. Cole knows that, after Chalky's testimony, it'll be much more difficult to lure another witness. _Then again, if it was an easy job anyone could do it_, he thinks, mentally shrugging.

"So, you didn't see him enter the granary that day, did you?"

"Objection, the question is leading!" says the prosecutor.

"Sustained," says the juror.

Cole cleans his throat and tries again:

"Did you see the defendant at the granary on the day after the robbery?"

"No," says Cliff.

"What about the days before?" Cole asks. "Had you ever seen the defendant at the granary before the robbery?"

"Yes," says Cliff, shifting position on his seat. With the corner of his eye, Cole can see the prosecutor lean forward and frown at him, and he wonders how long he'll be able to proceed before the troll finds a pretext to object again.

"What was he doing there?" he asks.

"Talking to Flint."

"Flint," says Cole. "Right. Does he work at the granary, too?"

"Yup," grunts Cliff; he's visibly uneasy with the human's odd course of questions.

"What did they talk about?"

"The demon..."

"Excuse me, who?" -- Cole raises his eyebrows, looking as innocent as possible.

"The defendant," Cliff spits, "he kept babbling about Flint owning him money. Of course, Flint never..."

"That's okay," says Cole, holding up his hand. "I'll take Flint's word for that."

Cliff stares at him, mildly surprised, as Cole proceeds:

"Let me see if I got it right: is it correct to say that the defendant visited the granary at least five times on the two weeks before the robbery, looking for Flint?"

"Yes," says Cliff.

"And is it correct to say that at all those times he asked for the money he alleged Flint owned him?"

"Yes." 

"And is it correct to say that Flint always said he owned the defendant nothing?"

"Yes." 

"So, is it correct to say that the defendant always left empty handed?"

"Yes." 

Cole can almost feel the prosecutor stare. The troll knows Cole is up to something, and he obviously intends to stop him the minute he tries it. Knowing he won't have another chance, Cole asks, as nonchalantly as possible:

"So is it correct to say that it's likely that the defendant showed up at the granary in the morning after the robbery just to ask for his money again?"

Cole has just pronounced the last word and the prosecutor is already on his feet, exclaiming:

"Objection, counsel's question calls for a conclusion!"

"Sustained," grunts the judge, frowning.

Cole gives the judge his most innocent look and says, contritely:

"I'm sorry, Your Honor. No further questions."

As he goes back to his seat, he's smiling innerly. He couldn't care less about the witness' conclusions, but he does care a lot about the jurors' conclusions, and he knows that he has given them something to think about: they can still believe that Sarsour was at the granary to cover his tracks as the prosecutor claims he was, if they choose so; but if they choose to believe the contrary, he has given them a reasonable explanation for Sarsour's presence at the granary.

The last prosecution witness is Rocky, one of the guards that arrested Sarsour at the granary. He's as intimidating as Cole hoped he'd be, with big haired arms covered with scars and a long dark mane that goes down to his broad shoulders.

Cole watches with great attention as the prosecutor inquiries Rocky about the circumstances of Sarsour's arrest.

"We intended to go after him after we had finished examining the scene of the crime," says Rocky, "but when we arrived at the granary he was already there."

"What did you do then?" asks the prosecutor.

"We tried to arrest him."

"And what did the defendant do?"

"He tried to run away," snorts Rocky.

"Did he ask you what you wanted with him?"

"No," says Rocky, "the minute he saw us walking towards him he started to run."

"The kind of behavior one would expect of someone with a heavy conscience, isn't it?" says the prosecutor.

Before Rocky can answer that, Cole stands up, exclaiming:

"Objection! This is speculation, Your Honor."

The judge seems to hesitate, but he finally mutters, unwillingly:

"Sustained."

"I'm sorry, Your Honor," says the prosecutor, keeping a straight face as he repeats Cole's words. "No further questions."

As he turns around to go back to his seat, he gives Cole a look that says _"Two can play this game"_. Cole refuses to respond to the taunting as he prepares to start the re-examination of the witness. It doesn't really matter if his objection was sustained: the damage has already been caused: you can't erase an idea from the mind of a juror just by saying "objection".

"Oh well," he sighs innerly, "it's time for some damage control."

"Rocky," he says, "how many guards were at the granary when the defendant was arrested?"

"There were three of us," says Rocky.

"And I assume that the other two guards match you in strength?"

"I guess," says Rocky, shrugging.

"I see," says Cole. "Rocky, would you mind standing up?"

Rocky looks at Cole, surprised, them gives the judge an interrogative look. This one motions him to oblige, while saying to Cole:

"Counsel, this better be relevant."

"It is, Your Honor," says Cole, before walking towards Rocky. Cole is a tall man, but as he stands before the twelve-foot-high troll he looks like a child before a grown up. Looking up at Rocky, he says:

"I'd say you could break me in two at any given moment, without shedding one single drop of sweat. Am I right?"

"You'll bet," says Rocky with a sneer, and Phoebe tenses up as he measures Cole with his eyes, as if actually considering the idea. "Can I sit now?" he asks, with a hint of impatience.

"Sure," says Cole, politely. "I was just wondering... what exactly did you say when you saw the defendant at the granary?"

As Rocky hesitates, Cole takes a cardboard from his pocket.

"Would it've been..." -- he reads it out loud -- "_There he is! Catch him!'_?"

"Might've been. I don't remember the exact words."

"Right," says Cole. "Still, even if you don't remember your exact words, can you state for the records that it was something like that?"

"Objection!" says the prosecutor. "_'Something like that'_ is totally subjective."

Cole raises his eyebrows, surprised that not only a troll knows the word "subjective", but also he can use it in the right context.

"Sustained," says the judge.

"Let me rephrase my question," says Cole, turning back to Rocky. "When you saw the defendant, did you or did you not point at him and tell your fellow guards to capture him?"

"I did," says Rocky.

"And then, did the three of you run towards him?"

"Hum, yes."

"And when the defendant," says Cole, poiting at Sarsour, "found himself surrounded by three very enraged guys with twice his size, he panicked and tried to run away." -- Cole bites his lower lip in mocking puzzlement -- "Go figure why..."

"Objection!" says the prosecutor, standing up. "The defendant's attorney will have plenty of time to express his thoughts during his closure speech."

"Sustained," says the judge, frowning at Cole. "Counsel, I'm getting tired of your attitude." He thinks a while and proceeds, matter-of-factly: "Also, I'm hungry. There'll be a one hour recess, and when we come back to this court I expect to see a more appropriate behavior."

Cole nods respectfully, but as the judge turns around to leave the courtroom, he gives the prosecutor a look that says _'current score: 2-1'_."

When he joins Sarsour this one asks, anxiously:

"So, how are we doing?"

"Well," says Cole, "so far I have showed the jurors that the prosecution's allegations may be a possible explanation, but they're not the only possible explanation. After the recess, I'll have to convince them that my explanation is better than the prosecutor's is. You know how it works, Sarsour: the prosecution doesn't have to prove you guilty beyond reasonable doubt, they just have to be convincing enough."

"And do you think you can be more convincing than he?"

"Well," says Cole with a sly smile, "you know I used to have a reputation of being able to charm almost anyone into doing anything... I like to think that I haven't lost it. Come on," -- he says, patting Sarsour's back -- "you're allowed to join us outside during the recess, aren't you? 'Cause Piper has brought enough food to feed the entire village, we could use some help eating it."

"Has she brought lemon ice cream?" Sarsour asks.

"I'm afraid she didn't," says Cole, chuckling.

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In the vicinity of the courtroom there is a park where most of the trolls watching the trial gather to kill time during the recess. Most of them are sitting on the ground in fours and fives, talking and having a snack. Not surprisingly, Piper takes a red/white checker cloth from the thermal bag she brought and spreads it on the ground. The food she has brought may not be enough for the entire village, but it sure is more than enough for the whole family, plus Sarsour, Tadrien, his sister Delilia -- the one Cole and Leo met while visiting Sarsour in prison -- and another male elf that he introduces as their cousin Rolad.

Phoebe has taken a blanket from the baby bag and spread it next to the cloth. That's where Ben is lying now, having been fed with smashed banana. He's laughing heartily at the faces Delilia is making at him: even though she only speaks elfish, she has no trouble letting Phoebe know she finds her baby adorable, and that's all it takes to win the proud mom's heart.

Taking an apple, Rolad shows it to Tadrien and asks:

"Mani naa sina?"

Tadrien looks at him with some confusion and says:

"En caryave."

Rolad gives him an impatient look and Tadrien finally gets it.

"A!" he says, rolling his eyes. "Sina naa..." -- he turns to Paige -- "Excuse me, how do you call this fruit?"

"Apple," she says.

"Abble?" says Rolad.

"No," she says, giggling. "Apple."

"Apple," he pronounces, mindfully.

"Apple," Paige repeats, smiling.

"Caryave," says Rolad, smiling back at her. Then, pointing at the orange she's peeling: "Ar' mani naa sina?"

"Orange," she says, getting the idea.

"Kuluma," he translates.

As they happily play this game, Piper leans towards Phoebe and whispers, smirking:

"Should we worry?"

"I think the question is, are we entitled to say anything, considering the ones we married?" says Phoebe, smiling and pointing her chin towards Cole and Leo. As the two sisters giggle, Leo raises his eyes from his sandwich and gives them a curious look. He considers asking them what the joke was, but then he thinks again, waves his head and turns his attention back to Cole, who's talking to Tadrien and Sarsour about the trial.

"So," Sarsour is saying, "you're not gonna call me to testify?"

"I'd rather not," says Cole. "First, if I inquired you, the prosecutor would have the right to re-examine you, and I'm afraid he'd slice you and dice you. Second, you may be half elf, but you've got the looks from your father's side of the family. The least we remind the jury of your demonic nature, the best. That's why I want them to take a good look at Tadrien here," -- he points Tadrien and the elf nods in silence -- "I want to make sure they don't forget you're half elf."

"It makes sense," says Sarsour, struggling with a soda can.

"You'll bet," says Cole, taking the can from his hand, opening it and giving it back to him. "Neither the defense nor the prosecution can actually prove anything here, which means the one with the best story will win."

"Is your story good?" Tadrien asks, gravely.

"It is," says Cole, confidently.

"You know," says Leo, "I thought you'd spend a lot more time with that Rocky fellow. I mean, considering..."

"... the strategy I've told you about at home, while we weren't surrounded by trolls?" says Cole, interrupting him and giving him a warning look.

Leo blushes and gives him an apologizing look as he realizes that he almost gave Cole's strategy away, but Cole dismisses him with a gesture before proceeding:

"I have summoned another guard as a defense witness," says Cole. "So, I saved my questions to him. That," he says, pointing at the courtroom, "is not just about evidences and testimonies; it has a more to do with dramatic sense than with anything else."

He nimbly peels an orange, letting the peel fall on his lap in just one piece, and proceeds:

"I didn't want to give my strategy away that soon; I'll present my ideas in a progression, until the _grand finale_. Hopefully, the prosecutor won't see what I'm doing until it's too late. And then", he adds with a smile, "he'll never know what hit him."


	14. The Defense Witnesses

Note # 1: Yes, Hjordis, I did a little research before writing the trial scenes. The objections came from:

http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/objecton.htm

and the elves' names came from:

http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Tower/1312/elfnames.html

Note #2: I'm not a lawyer, and I was never pregnant, and I'm flattered that you guys find my writing so convincing. :-)

**Attention**: I'm so very sorry for having taken so much time to upload this chapter! I never meant to leave you hanging: it's just that I've re-written the testimonies of Moraine and Stony over and over again, trying to make their description of the granary as understandable as possible. This is the best I could come up with; I also drew the plan and uploaded it to my website: you can view it at:

http://coisasqueamoemcharmed.vilabol.uol.com.br/Imagens/Fanfics/TDA01.jpg

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

When Cole calls Tadrien to testify, a wave of surprise passes through the courtroom. Heads are turned and necks are stretched to look at the elf as he leaves his seat at the back of the room and walks towards the witness' seat. A deep silence slowly falls over the crowd, as Tadrien politely nods at the judge, takes his seat and looks at Cole.

"Can you state your name for the records, please?" says Cole.

"I'm Tadrien from Lothlórien, son of Elril-Gar and Fiondra."

"What's your occupation, Tadrien?"

"I'm a merchant."

"For how long have you been making business in the troll's village?"

"About five years."

"So, I suppose you go to the Market Square quite often?"

"Yes. Every week."

"I see." Cole pauses briefly before proceeding. He wants to make sure everyone in the courtroom is paying attention to Tadrien's next words.

"Tadrien, have you seen the defendant at the Market Square during the past few weeks?"

"Yes," says Tadrien. "We've been meeting at the Market Square every week for the last two months."

"Can you tell this court what your relation with the defendant is?"

"We're cousins," says Tadrien. The effect of his words is tremendous: commotion sweeps the courtroom as the trolls start to talk excitedly among themselves. Even the prosecutor looks perplexed.

"Order!" shouts the judge, banging the gavel. "Order in the court!"

When the trolls finally calm down, Cole turns to Tadrien again and asks:

"Can you be more specific?"

"The defendant is the son of Gladriendra, the older sister of my great-grandfather Amon."

"Tadrien, isn't it a problem for you that the defendant doesn't exactly look like an elf?" Cole asks.

"You don't recognize an elf by his looks, counsel," says Tadrien, gravely. "You recognize an elf by his soul."

"So, you'd say that the defendant..." starts Cole.

"He's one of us," says Tadrien.

Cole doesn't need to look at Sarsour to know that his friend is smiling. In his entire life, Sarsour was never "one of us" to anyone. His father stopped giving him the little attention demon parents usually give to their offspring when it became clear that Sarsour's powers wouldn't develop any further. Never having joined any of the several gangs, brotherhoods and factions of the Underworld, Sarsour went through life as an outcast: having his family come to the trial to support him is a whole new experience for him.

"But," Cole pursues, "you're aware of his demonic activities in the past, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am," says Tadrien.

"And yet you and your family are willing to receive him among you?"

"Yes, we are."

"May I ask why?"

"I understand no one can change their past," says Tadrien, gravely. "Asking my cousin to do so would be irrational; the only thing we could ask him -- and we did ask -- was to not do evil any more."

"So," says Cole, "in order to be received among the elves the defendant couldn't do evil any more?"

"Sure."

"And did he agree with it?"

"Yes, he did."

"Am I correct to assume that, by aiding and abetting with the robbery, the defendant would be breaking the promise he made to you, thus ruining his chances of moving to the elves' town?"

"Absolutely."

"Thank you, Tadrien," says Cole. "No further questions, Your Honor."

The judge dismisses Tadrien as the prosecutor doesn't want to re-examine him. Even though no troll will ever admit it, they feel intimidated by elves.

The next one to take the witness' seat is Flint, the troll Sarsour was looking for when he went to the granary on the day after the robbery. Cole almost regrets having summoned him as a witness: Flint seems to be convinced that this trial is a scheme plotted with the sole aim of taking money from him, and no matter what Cole asks, he stubbornly keeps coming back to the fact that he owns nothing to Sarsour. When Cole finally manages to make him confirm that, debt or no debt, Sarsour **_believed_** Flint owned him money, he quickly dismisses the witness, afraid that Flint's harping on the same string over and over again will end up distracting the jury.

The prosecutor, who obviously knows Flint's temper, dismisses the witness without re-examining him, and then it's time for Moraine to testify.

The judge arches his eyebrows when he sees Cole walk towards the defendant's seat and come back carrying a chair, a blackboard and a piece of chalk.

"Counsel, what is this?" he asks, as Cole puts the blackboard on the chair, propped on the chair's back, so that the jurors can see it.

"Visual aid, Your Honor," says Cole, matter-of-factly, taking a couple of steps back and verifying that the blackboard is straight.

"Why did you bring all this stuff with you instead of making a requisition to this court for what you needed?" asks the judge, with a hint of impatience.

"You mean, I could have made a requisition?" says Cole, looking convincingly abashed. "My mistake..." he says, waving his head sadly, while Phoebe bites her lips and lowers her eyes to hide her amused expression. When Cole asked her to bring this blackboard with them to the court, he knew very well that the court could provide it, but he didn't want the prosecution to have any hint of what he intended to do. And apparently, it worked out pretty well, because right now the prosecutor is rolling his eyes and exchanging an ironic look with the judge.

As soon as everything is set, Cole turns to Moraine and asks:

"Moraine, how long have you been working at the granary?"

"Twelve years," says Moraine, proudly.

"So," says Cole, "I assume it'll be easy for you to describe the place for us, won't it?"

"Sure."

"Good," says Cole, walking towards the blackboard. "Now, I've seen the granary from outside," -- now it's Leo's turn to hide a smile -- "so I'll tell you what I could see from where I stood and you can correct me if I'm wrong, okay?"

"Fine," says Moraine, shrugging.

"From what I saw," says Cole, starting to draw on the blackboard, "the front of the granary faces north. There's this long wall facing east, the one we can see from the courtroom's door." -- he pauses and looks at Moraine -- "Am I right so far?"

"Sure," says Moraine, rolling his eyes. "How hard can it be?"

Someone giggles in the audience, and the judge bangs his gavel, frowning, but it doesn't seem to bother Cole.

"The west wall, on the other hand," he says, seemingly very interested in his drawing, "is considerably shorter than the east one, because the granary's back is wider than its front." -- he finishes the drawing and turns to Moraine again, pointing at the L-shaped figure he has just drawn -- "So far, so good?"

"Yup."

"Good," says Cole, smiling. "Now, the doors: there's this double door here, on the north wall," -- he draws a door on the top of the L -- "and this one here..." -- he starts drawing another door on the west wall, next to the bottom left corner of the L, but Moraine interrupts him.

"This door has been sealed," says the troll. "We won't be using it again until next spring."

"But it looks..." Cole starts.

"From the outside it looks fine," says Moraine. "But we've sealed it from the inside four months ago. The room it leads to is being remodeled."

"Oh!" says Cole, frowning slightly. "Okay, then." -- he writes "sealed" next to the door he has just drawn.

"Then how does the food enter the granary?" he asks. "Because the other door is used only by customers who want to buy food, right?"

"Exactly," says Moraine. "We have built another door on the east side; that's the one we've been using for the last four months."

"I didn't see this door," says Cole. "Is it here?" he asks, drawing a door on the east side of the building, next to the bottom right corner of the L.

"Yes," says Moraine. "You didn't see it because it leads to the woods."

"Right," says Cole, slapping his forehead. "The woods!"

He writes the word "woods" next to the door, then turns to Moraine again and asks:

"Is there any other door?"

"No," says Moraine.

"Okay, let's see what we've got inside the granary," says Cole. "When people enter through the main door -- the big one facing north -- what do they see?"

"A counter," says Moraine. "It separates the customers' area from the storage area."

Cole draws two horizontal lines parallel to the North wall, representing the counter, then asks:

"And past the counter...?"

"First you have the sorting area, where the different kinds of grains are sorted and then taken to the appropriate rooms," says Moraine, "then there's a corridor with doorways on each side that lead to the storage rooms."

"All right. A corridor," says Cole, drawing two vertical lines representing a north-south corridor that divides the lower part of the L in two. "What do you have on this side?" he asks, pointing at the space on the left side of the corridor, next to the sealed door.

"One big room, the one that's currently being remodeled," says Moraine, and Cole draws a horizontal line separating this room from the triage area.

"At what height of the corridor is the door to this room?" Cole asks, pointing at the wall that separates the corridor from the room he has just drawn.

"Uh, halfway from the sorting area," says Moraine, and Cole draws a door on the midpoint of the wall.

"Anything else on this side of the corridor?" Cole asks.

"No, that's all," says Moraine.

"What about the other side?" Cole asks, pointing at the east end of the L.

"You have two doors on this side of the corridor," says Moraine, "each one leading to one storage room."

"Like this?" Cole asks, drawing a horizontal line that divides the east end of the L in two, and adding two doors to the right side of the corridor, each one leading to one storage room.

"Yes," says Moraine.

"Anything else?"

Moraine studies Cole's drawing for a while, before waving his head.

"No, that's all," he says.

"Thank you, Moraine," says Cole. Then, turning to the judge: "No further questions, Your Honor."

"That's all you've got?" the judge asks, raising his eyebrows.

"Yes," says Cole.

"All right, your case, your call..." says the judge shrugging. He's clearly unimpressed by Moraine's testimony, and so is the prosecutor, who dismisses the witness with a gesture.

Cole doesn't acknowledge his oponent's disdain as he calls his last witness. Stony is another of the constables that arrested Sarsour: having seen Moraine's innocuous testimony, he leans back on the witness' seat and looks at Cole with an air of a superiority.

"Stony," says Cole, "which door was used by the thieves when they broke into the granary?"

"The east door," says Stony. "The one that leads to the woods."

"This one?" says Cole, pointing at the said door. As Stony nods his head in agreement, he writes the word "thieves" next to the door.

"Was it the same door you and the other constables used as you entered the granary on the day you arrested the defendant?"

"No," says Stony. "We entered through the double door, on the north side.

"And where were the three of you when you saw the defendant?"

"In the customers' area," says Stony.

"Okay," says Cole, drawing a mark above the counter and writing "C" next to it. "And where was the defendant?"

"At the opposite end of the corridor," says Stony, "next to the door."

"This one?" says Cole, pointing at the door to the last storage room on the east side of the corridor, the room that has the door that leads to the woods.

"Yes," says Stony, and Cole draws a mark in the corridor, next to the door, and writes the letter "D" next to it.

He moves the blackboard slightly, making sure it can be seen by everyone in the courtroom.

"According to Rocky, when the defendant saw you running towards him, he tried to run away. Is that correct?"

"Yes, it is."

"Where did he run to, Stony?"

Stony leans forward and looks at the blackboard.

"He ran towards that door," he says, pointing at the door to the largest storage room, the one who's being remodeled.

"Right," says Cole. "And what did you do then?"

"We went after him," says Stony, "and we captured him there."

"Hum!" says Cole, looking at the blackboard and frowning. "According to this drawing, though, the defendant was much closer to the door than you were. How did you manage to get there before he reached the exit door?" he asks, pointing at the door on the west side.

"We didn't have to," says Stony. "It was a dead end; there was nowhere he could go from there."

"Well, according to Moraine's testimony there was actually an exit door right here," says Cole, pointing at the said door.

"But it was sealed," says Stony, impatiently. "You have just written it yourself!"

Cole gives the blackboard a puzzled look.

"But he could've opened it, couldn't he?"

"Do you understand the meaning of the word 'sealed'?" snorts Stony. Cole seems to be taken aback, and the prosecutor chuckles slightly. "Not closed, not locked, but sealed! Sealed with big, heavy boards, and lots of boxes piled in front of it. It just couldn't be opened!"

"I'm sorry, Stony, but I have to disagree with you on this one," says Cole stubbornly. "You see, I was at the Market Square and I saw this door, and it didn't look..."

"From the outside it looked normal, you stupid!" yells Stony, losing his patience. The prosecutor is openly smiling now, loving the sight of his opponent making a fool of himself. "But you didn't see it from the inside! If you had been inside that storage area, you'd know that the only way out was the other door, the same one the thieves used! Only someone who had never been in that storage room would think..."

Stony stops short and his jaw drops as he understands what he's just said. Much to Cole's credit, he manages to keep a straight face as comprehension sinks in over the entire room. Only when he's sure everyone in the courtroom has understood the implications of Stony's words does he turn to the judge and says, smiling:

"The defense rests."

The prosecutor is so stunned that he doesn't even re-examine Stony. He dismisses the witness with an absent gesture, with his eyes still on Cole and a look of bewilderment on his face, and it actually takes him a few seconds to regain his wits and stand up to make his closing speech.

After he's done, Cole takes a deep breath and stands up. He walks slowly towards the middle of the room, looks at the jurors and starts his closing speech.

"When my client came to my house asking me to represent him," he says, "I must admit that I, too, thought he looked as guilty as possible. I didn't need to listen to the prosecutor to think he was guilty. I didn't need the details of this case. All I needed to do" -- he turns to Sarsour and gives him an apologizing smile -- "was to look at him."

Cole walks towards Sarsour, and stands next to him.

"My client is a demon," he says. "Well, actually, half demon. But what difference does it make when he looks like a demon? He could be only 10% demon and he'd still look guilty as sin. Because he's a demon, and demons are evil. Nothing can change that, right?"

The jurors give him curious looks, but say nothing, and Cole proceeds:

"Not quite. People change. Humans change, trolls change, elves change. Even demons can change. As Tadrien said, you can't ask a guy to change his past. That's the sad thing about free will: we have to live with the consequences of our acts. That's the price we pay for being free. But," he says, starting to walk towards the jury again, "a guy can change his future. Although there's nothing he can do about his past, he can do something with his future."

"That's why I'm asking you now not to judge my client for his demonic past. Judge him for what he is now: someone who has recently found out he has a family, and is doing his best to live up to his family's name. Someone who has come to this village for no other reason than to meet his cousin, a merchant most of you know, some have even made business with. Someone who was so unaware of the functioning of the granary that, when faced with the need to run for his life, didn't go to the door that the thieves had used the night before, the one that would have led him to the safety of the woods, but rather tried to use the only door whose existence he was aware of, the one he could see from outside."

Cole pauses briefly before proceeding, saying gravely:

"If my client had committed the crime he's being accused of, he'd have, in exchange for a few bucks, ruined the chance to have the one thing he has been yearning for over more than a hundred years: a family. People he actually belongs with."

He bites his lower lip, considering what he's going to say next.

"There's something about kin. They can be a pain sometimes. They can be demanding and nosy and annoying; they can drive you crazy; they can make you feel that if you don't put some space between you and them you're gonna end up killing someone."

Cole spreads his arms and says, with a smile:

"But you know what they say: can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em. It took my client more than a century to find someone he belongs with, and I can assure you that, now that he found them, he'll do whatever it takes to deserve their love and respect, even if it means giving up the only lifestyle he's ever known. He wouldn't have jeopardized his chances for all the money in the world."

Cole looks at the jurors for a moment, waiting as the meaning of his words sink in.

"Thanks for your attention, ladies and gentlemen," he says. As he turns around and goes back to sit by Sarsour's side, he can hear the jurors leaving the room. There's nothing neither him, nor the prosecutor can do now. The only thing both parts can do is wait for the verdict.


	15. We, the Jury

Note #1: I know I'm leaving a lot of unanswered questions in this story. Please don't shoot me: keep in mind that this is a series, and the next installments are on their way. And, yes, Hjordis, Piper is gonna have her baby in a future installment. But not yet: we wouldn't want Leo to be off the hook that quickly, would we?

Note #2: I had promised a sequel to "Whose Power Is It Anyway?", and I intend to live up to my word. Since I'm also working on a sequel to "The Demon's Advocate", I'll try to post them both simultaneously, because I love both stories the same.

Note #3: As usual, thanks for the reviews: you guys are the best! :-)

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The jurors take less than ten minutes to come back. The judge waits until they have taken their seats and motions for Cole and Sarsour to stand up; once they're both standing, he turns to the jurors and asks:

"Members of the jury, have you reached a verdict?"

"Yes, Your Honor, we have," says the spokesman.

"On the Case of the demon Sarsour versus the trolls, what do you say?"

"We, the jury, find the defendant not guilty."

"Members of the jury, thanks for a job well done," says the judge. "This court is adjourned." Then, turning to Sarsour: "You're free to go."

Only when Cole releases his breath does he realize he had been holding it. He turns to Sarsour, who's talking very excitedly:

"Not guilty! Not guilty! I was found not guilty, did you hear that? I'm free to go, the judge said I'm free to go, and I..."

"Congratulations, Sarsour." -- Cole smiles as he holds out his hand. He knows by experience that if he doesn't stop Sarsour, his friend can go on gibbering indefinitely. "You're a free, uh... elf."

"Thanks to you," says Sarsour, shaking his hand enthusiastically, a wide smile spread all over his face. "Thank you, my friend. I knew you wouldn't fail me."

"Well, you certainly made things easier for me by being innocent," says Cole, smirking. Then he adds, in a more serious manner: "But please be careful from now on, okay?"

"I will," says Sarsour. "I will. What you said on your closing speech is true: I have a family that trusts me now, I can't disappoint them."

"I'm sure they won't be disappointed," says Cole, smiling. "And since you're not doing evil anymore and I don't have to worry about my in laws vanquishing you... don't be a stranger, okay?"

"Okay," says Sarsour. "I won't."

"So," says Cole, glancing at Tadrien, Delilia e Rolad, who are waiting patiently at the back of the room, "are you going straight to Lothlórien with your family now?"

"No," says Sarsour, "I need to stop by the Underworld to pack a few things. If you want to send a message to anyone...?" -- he leaves the sentence hanging, giving Cole an inquisitive look.

Cole hesitates briefly, then waves his head.

"No," he sighs. "I told you, I left this part of my life behind. Besides," he adds with a humorless smile, "I doubt the person we're talking about would be very willing to hear from me, considering..." -- he casts a glance towards his own family, standing a few steps away -- "... everything."

Sarsour opens his mouth to say something, but Cole points at the elves, saying:

"Your family is waiting to congratulate you: you'd better join them."

Sarsour gives him one last curious look before walking towards his family. Cole watches as they gather around Sarsour, talking happily and patting his back, until he feels Phoebe's hand on his arm.

"Congratulations, counsel," she says, smiling.

"Why, thank you, Mrs. Turner," he says as he leans down to kiss her, careful not to wake up Ben, who's sound asleep in his mother's arms.

"So," says Piper, as she and Paige join them, "how does it feel to have saved your first innocent?"

"Uh, good," says Cole, slightly puzzled, "but should I remind you that I have saved innocents before? Maybe not as many as you have, but still..."

"Right," she says, "but technically they were **_our_** innocents. Not that I don't appreciate your help, but this was the first time it was your very own innocent."

"Hum!" says Cole, with a surprised smile. "It was, wasn't it?"

"I think so," says Phoebe, smiling.

"Human!" -- they turn around to see the prosecutor pushing his way through the crowd. He finally stops before Cole and says, pointing at him:

"You tricked me."

Then, surprisingly, he smiles and holds out his hand.

"You're a damn good lawyer, human."

"Thank you," says Cole, smiling as his hand disappears inside the prosecutor's huge hand. "You're a fair opponent."

As the prosecutor turns around and leaves, Cole turns to his family again, only now realizing that someone is missing.

"Where is Leo?" he asks.

"He had to leave as soon as they announced the verdict," says Piper. "We can wait for him here, or Paige can orb us back."

"I for one vote for orbing back home with Paige," says Phoebe. "This little guy here is not getting any lighter," she explains, motioning her chin towards Ben.

"I'm sorry, baby," says Cole. "Here, let me carry him," he adds as he carefully takes the baby from her arms.

Ben half opens his eyes and whines, and Cole rocks him gently, talking softly to him:

"Shh, that's alright, buddy, it's just me, let's give mommy a break, okay?"

As the baby quiets down and drifts into sleep again, Leo orbs back.

"Is everything okay?" Piper asks.

"Yes," he says, smiling. "They had asked me to let them know as soon as the jury reached a verdict." -- Phoebe raises her eyebrows, and he shrugs -- "Don't ask me why; I was every bit as surprised as you are. Anyway," he adds, turning to Cole -- "they send their congratulations; I told them your defense was brilliant."

"Thanks," says Cole, shaking the hand that's being offered.

"So," says Piper, "are we ready to go home?"

"Absolutely," says Leo. "Not only ready, but in need for some more lemon ice cream."

He sighs and adds, putting his arm around her waist and placing his free hand on Cole's shoulder:

"When you finally have this baby, I'll be weighing in at about four hundred pounds..."

"Beware, I know where this is going," says Cole, winking at Piper, "soon he'll be whining about how he doesn't have anything pretty to wear."

"Another witty remark and he stays here with the trolls," Leo warns Phoebe.

"Behave," she says, slapping Cole's arm playfully; then she takes Paige's hand so that they can all orb back home.

**The End  
(Next installment: "So Mote It Be")**


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